We have so many voter referendum campaigns in Maine every year that I should just make two fancy permanent signs, “Yes on 1” and “No on 1,” and then just keep whichever one I don’t support that year in the shed. 

This year (2025, somehow), Question 1 on the ballot is: “Do you want to change Maine election laws to eliminate two days of absentee voting, prohibit requests for absentee ballots by phone or family members, end ongoing absentee voter status for seniors and people with disabilities, ban prepaid postage on absentee ballot return envelopes, limit the number of drop boxes, require voters to show certain photo ID before voting, and make other changes to our elections?” 

No. No, I don’t want to do any of those things. I’m trying to think of elegant words to communicate how I feel about that proposition in a classy, professional way, but I’m exhausted from waking up twice in the night for a bathroom break and I’ve been having Braxton Hicks contractions all day long.

The ideas behind and contained within Question 1 are stupid. We don’t need to make voting harder. 

The main campaign group in favor of Question 1, Voter ID for ME, has raised $538,000. Nearly all of that funding — $500,000 — has come from the National Republican Leadership Committee.

Campaign manager Alex Titcomb was quoted as saying the campaign is a “grassroots, citizen-led effort from the beginning” and complaining about the No on 1 campaign and “a pattern on the left, where large amounts of out-of-state money flood into Maine.”

As opposed to large amounts of out-of-state money that flow into the state for right-wing causes, I guess. I may not be the smartest columnist out there, but I know for darn sure that the National Republican Leadership Committee isn’t a small local business. 

What this indicates to me is that the Republican Party is mad it’s been losing elections in Maine, so it wants to make it harder for people to vote, especially the types of people it thinks use absentee ballots to elect Democrats. 

Attacking absentee voting is a risky gamble if the goal is more conservative victories. When I was a kid, every election day my dad wished for bad weather, because he said it would keep older, more conservative voters at home. (Dad was a moderate-to-liberal older voter.) 

My preference is voting in person — I want the sticker and to show off my red white and blue voting outfit (yes, I have one) — but I used absentee voting in college so I didn’t have to make an eight-hour round trip home to vote; I also voted absentee in 2020 due to the pandemic.

My brother voted by absentee ballot when he was in the military. Now, I am definitely someone most Republicans would like to prevent from voting. But military members usually aren’t.

Besides, voting by absentee ballot has become much more popular with older voters, especially ones living in rural areas far from their polling places. Statistically and generally speaking, older and rural voters trend conservative. Anyone who thinks it’s all liberal blue-haired college kids is in for a rude awakening.

One of the many wonderful things I love about Maine is its voter participation rates. We Mainers take participatory democracy seriously. In 2024, Maine’s voter turnout rate was third in the country, with 74.8% of the voting age population casting a ballot.

I think that’s an awesome thing. It means the majority of citizens here are involved in their community, aware and participating, and it also makes elections more legitimate, because if the vast majority of the population has voted, the vast majority has had their rightful say. 

Maine elections are safe, simple and secure. They are also incredibly open and accessible, even the behind-the-scenes stuff, for anyone who is interested. You can sign up to be a poll watcher on Election Day and you can watch the absentee ballots be counted. I did both in 2020.

Stories and rumors about voter fraud are just that — stories and rumors with no actual proof, spread by people with ulterior motives to people who aren’t familiar with the boring, day-to-day ins and outs of running elections.

Checks and balances are boring. Ballot counting is also kind of boring to watch. But the option is there, and if you’ve ever felt doubt in local election security, I personally recommend taking the opportunity to get involved with an open heart and mind. You’ll see what I saw — teams of dedicated civil servants and helpful volunteers making sure every Mainer gets to exercise their constitutional rights. 

And that’s the thing that gets me. Voting is a right. It is the defining right of citizenship, and I think it should be considered a sacred responsibility as well. Our ancestors fought a bloody war to secure the franchise. Successive generations of women, Black Americans and others continued that struggle.

Regardless of how seriously some people do or don’t take it, voting is still their right, and the whole point of rights is you don’t have to jump through hoops to access them. I will be voting “No” on 1. I hope you will too.