Organizers behind a referendum to ban transgender athletes from girls sports teams will make a bid for the 2027 ballot.
Protect Girls Sports announced Friday that it will have a blitz on Sept. 26-7 to gather the 532 signatures needed to get the referendum on next year’s ballot.
That comes after organizers failed to qualify for this November’s ballot after more than 12,000 signatures were invalidated, including about 1,500 gathered by out-of-state circulators who didn’t agree to submit to Maine’s jurisdiction.
The referendum’s backers appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which refused to overturn Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to invalidate those signatures, saying she was “not only authorized but was constitutionally bound” to do so.
But the high court left open the door for organizers to gather the needed signatures to get on the 2027 ballot.