Maine Secretary of State Says Candidate’s Flier Gives False Info

Secretary of State Matt Dunlap says a claim about primary elections made on a presidential candidate's flier is incorrect.

The mailing came from the campaign of Democratic presidential primary candidate Michael Bloomberg and suggests that any voter is eligible to vote in the primary election. Dunlap says this is not a true statement. Voting for presidential candidates in primary elections is restricted to registered members of the Republican or Democratic parties. While all voters are allowed to vote in the general elections, presidential primaries are restricted. The presidential primary election is scheduled for March 3, 2020.

Dunlap adds that voters who are currently unenrolled, or who are registering for the first time, can do it at any time, up to and including on Election Day. However, voters who are changing from one party to another are required, by law, to obey a 15-day waiting period before casting a ballot in their new party's primary. That puts the deadline for changing enrollment for this year's primary at February 17th, 2020.

A few other items, of note, about the March 3rd election:

• All voters who have been members of the Libertarian, Socialist, or Alliance political parties are now considered unenrolled, as those parties have not met the party qualification standards in law.
• All voters, regardless of party affiliation, may participate on March 3rd, to cast ballots on the following question: "Do you want to reject the new law that removes religious and philosophical exemptions to requiring immunization against certain communicable diseases for students to attend schools and colleges and for employees of nursery schools and health care facilities?"
• Brewer voters will also have a special election ballot, to elect a candidate to represent them in the House of Representatives, for District 128, filling the vacancy left by the death of Representative Arthur Verow.