Overview
- Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows removed the initiative on Tuesday after a presiding officer recommended invalidation for lacking the required number of valid signatures.
- Bellows' office found more than 12,000 signatures invalid, which left the petition a few hundred short of the roughly 67,000 valid signatures needed to qualify.
- A two-day hearing heard testimony alleging improper collection practices, including claims that petition sheets were left unattended while signatures were added.
- The measure, sponsored by Protect Girls Sports, would have required schools to base sports and facility access on the sex on a student's original birth certificate and would have allowed students to sue schools.
- A recent poll showed 44% support and strong partisan splits, the petitioners have 10 days to appeal, and the ruling is a setback for similar national campaigns targeting transgender students in sports.