Lawmakers heard hours of testimony Friday from opponents of several proposals to require photo identification prior to voting in Maine, including a citizen initiative that would also place new restrictions on absentee voting.

Most of the testimony focused on the citizen initiative led by Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, that is likely headed to a statewide referendum in November. It calls for sweeping electoral reforms including a voter ID requirement, restrictions on absentee voting, a limit on the number of ballot drop boxes and other requirements that election officials said would be difficult and expensive to implement.

Opponents argued that Maine’s elections are already secure and that the new requirements would only make it more difficult for some people to vote, including elderly residents, people with disabilities, people without reliable transportation, busy parents and shift-workers. Those who spoke in favor, mostly the Republican sponsors of the bills, argued they are commonsense reforms to increase confidence in elections.

Libby downplayed the overwhelming opposition to the new voting requirements from individuals and groups, such as the AARP, the Maine Town and City Clerks Association, the Maine State Nurses Association, the Maine Education Association and the Maine Women’s Lobby.

“This isn’t the public hearing that matters,” Libby said. “We have already held our hearing and over 171,000 Maine people testified at that public hearing. That’s how many Mainers signed the petition that brought this legislation before the committee. Their signatures are their testimony.”

But others dismissed that claim, accusing signature gatherers of not explaining the sweeping changes to absentee voting also included in the bill.

Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, who chairs the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, repeatedly pressed Alex Titcomb, who along with Libby is leading the Voter ID for ME campaign, about whether organizers were deliberately trying to conceal other proposed changes to election laws in the 12-page bill by focusing attention on the more popular voter ID mandate to gain signatures and support.

Titcomb said the proposal was available to anyone who wanted to read it.

“We weren’t hiding it,” Titcomb said. “(The proposal’s) a publicly available document.”

The Voter ID for ME campaign has been fueled by a $500,000 donation from a national group, the Republican State Leadership Committee.

Because the campaign gathered enough signatures, lawmakers must either enact the referendum, LD 1149, or send it to the voters in November. And with Republicans in the minority in the Legislature, a referendum is all but assured.

Beth Allen of Mainers for Modern Elections, a coalition of local groups fighting to preserve and expand voting rights, urged the committee to send the referendum to voters, calling it an “attack on our secure elections.

“(LD) 1149 is a poorly written, catch-everything bill that would dismantle trusted and secured systems that Maine citizens have long depended on to securely and conveniently cast their ballots,” Allen said. “Maine voters should be given the opportunity to reject this out-of-state, cookie-cutter policy.”

The proposal would require a photo ID at the polls or when a voter returns an absentee ballot, though it includes a religious exemption for those who object to being photographed. Acceptable IDs would include state driver’s license or ID cards, a military ID, passport or a concealed weapons permit. It would not include student IDs.

The proposal would also end the current practice of allowing absentee ballots to be requested by phone and by immediate family members, and would end a program that allows seniors and people with disabilities to receive absentee ballots for every election without making a special request each time.

Additionally, the bill would prohibit municipalities such as Portland and Orono from having more than one drop box to collect absentee ballots. And it would require municipalities to have “a bipartisan team of election officials” to collect those ballots, rather than assigning the task to municipal clerks.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows opposed the changes, saying Maine regularly ranks among the highest for voter turnout and election security.

Bellows said some provisions appear to have been imported from other states and do not apply to Maine, including references to towns with multiple clerk’s offices and descriptions of ballots with certain tags, which Maine doesn’t have and cannot process using its existing tabulators.

“It is important that the legislators and the voters understand the comprehensive nature of the initiative that’s before you,” Bellows said.

Two Republican lawmakers — Rep. Reagan Paul of Winterport and Sen. Jeff Timberlake of Turner — also presented more narrow standalone bills that would require photo ID at the polls.

But Bellows advised lawmakers that either of those bills, LD 397 and LD 38, would be considered a competing proposal to the citizen referendum and would also have to be placed on a statewide ballot, if enacted by the Legislature.

Timberlake said people already need a photo ID for various activities and transactions, whether it’s driving, banking or purchasing alcohol or tobacco. But opponents noted that those activities are privileges, not fundamental constitutional rights.

Ceridwen Cherry said her group, VoteRiders, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that helps people get identification documents, conducted a survey in 2023 and found that one in 10 eligible voters did not have a current photo ID and 12% of the nonexpired IDs were not up-to-date with names or home addresses.

“These statistics make clear that a photo ID law in Maine would disenfranchise large numbers of eligible voters,” she said.

All of the voter ID proposals would require the secretary of state’s office to offer free photo IDs to anyone who doesn’t have one. But critics questioned whether seniors, people with disabilities or lower-income people who lack adequate transportation, especially in rural areas, would be able to travel to a location to have their photo taken for the IDs.

Alex Wu, a senior at Scarborough High School, said it was “baffling” that proponents would think that people who are housebound and unable to get to the polls would be able to travel somewhere to get their free ID.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Wu said.

The committee did not take action on the bill following the 2 ½-hour hearing.