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On June 8, I reached out to the Gov. Janet Mill’s office in regards to the non-party candidates time limitations on gathering signatures and getting them to the Election Commission for certification. Since the governor’s March 15 executive order that required all citizens to stay home, several of us non-party candidates have experienced various issues in gathering the required signatures.
On June 16, the governor’s office finally replied to my request to extend the deadline to Aug. 1, like New Hampshire and Vermont have done. The reply that I had received had nothing to do with the looming deadline for non-party candidates or the reluctance of citizens willing to engage us for fear of COVID-19. The reply centered on and around the absentee ballots that we are being asked to use this year.
Although we non-party candidates appreciate the additional month, we lost slightly more than two months’ time due to the executive order that forced everyone to stay home. Originally, all non-party candidates had from Jan. 1 to June 1 for normal signature gathering. With the statewide shutdown slowly being rescinded, all we are asking for is the original amount of days, basically until Aug. 1.
Both New Hampshire and Vermont have extended their deadlines for non-party candidates and several town clerks have already told me that such an extension would not hinder the election process.
Mills should consider issuing a new executive order giving non-party candidates until Aug. 1 to collect and return ballot petitions. All we are asking for is equal and fair access to the November ballot. The secretary of state is powerless to make this change; it has to come from the governor’s office. I do not believe that this is too much to ask for.
Leigh Hawes
Skowhegan
(The writer is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate.)
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