Maine judge: Secretary of state was right to invalidate trans ballot referendum
A citizen‑initiated referendum that would have asked Maine voters whether transgender students should be barred from competing on sports teams or using facilities that correspond with their gender identity will not appear on the November ballot. The proposal, championed by the group Protect Girls Sports, was filed with the Secretary of State on November 3, 2025, and aimed to require that school athletic programs and private changing rooms be organized according to biological sex rather than gender identity.
The effort began in earnest on November 4, 2025, when Gerald Butler was photographed collecting signatures in the lobby of the Hammond Lumber Auditorium in Augusta. Over the ensuing months the campaign amassed signatures, but a review by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows uncovered procedural violations that called the petition’s validity into question. Her staff determined that signature gatherers had left their sheets unattended, submitted signatures that did not meet state standards, and failed to obtain the required consent to Maine’s jurisdiction—breaches of the state’s citizen‑initiative statutes. Because of these irregularities, Bellows invalidated nearly 4,000 signatures, leaving the petition about 500 short of the 12,000‑signature threshold needed for ballot access.
In March 2026, three individuals filed a lawsuit alleging that the signature‑collection process had been improperly conducted. Bellows initially had validated the referendum, but after the legal challenge she reversed course in late May, announcing that the question could not be placed on the November ballot. The decision was based on the finding that out‑of‑state collectors refused to comply with Maine law.
The matter returned to the Superior Court, where the Protect Girls Sports committee argued that the Secretary of State lacked the authority to nullify the petition. On Thursday, Justice Deborah Cashman issued a decision upholding Bellows’s ruling, confirming that the disqualified signatures could not be counted. “I swore an oath to uphold the law and Constitution, and my decision was rooted in that,” Bellows said in an interview, emphasizing the legal basis for her staff’s review.
Leyland Streiff, a representative of Protect Girls Sports, responded that the committee remains committed to the cause. “The committee is committed to continuing its efforts to allow the people of Maine to vote on the Protect Girls Sports legislation at the November general election,” he said. He added that the group intends to seek a review by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
David Farmer, campaign manager for the opposition coalition that seeks to defeat the referendum, pointed to what he described as clear evidence of rule‑breaking and highlighted the involvement of out‑of‑state billionaires financing the effort. “The campaign that tried to attack transgender students broke the rules, it didn’t follow the law and the Superior Court was correct to reject their appeal of the decision by the secretary of state,” Farmer asserted.
A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office indicated that a final determination on ballot preparation must be made by August 1 to allow time for printing and distribution. Meanwhile, the petitioners may continue to collect signatures, though any new signatures will remain valid only for one year from the original filing date—November 3, 2025, in this case.
The outcome leaves the Protect Girls Sports initiative in a legal limbo, with an appeal pending and a deadline approaching for the state to finalize its election materials. The dispute underscores the tension between grassroots citizen initiatives and the procedural safeguards embedded in Maine’s election law.
