PORTLAND — Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said Tuesday morning he has received several reports of a group videotaping signature gatherers and signers at polling locations but said there is nothing illegal about it.
Dunlap said he has warned several people making the videos that they should be careful about showing details of people’s signatures because it could make them easier to forge, but he clarified that the act of recording at a polling place is protected under the First Amendment.
“It’s a very fine line between videotaping a petition gatherer and taping someone making their signature,” Dunlap said. “As far as the videotaping is concerned, there is no law that addresses that.”
Dunlap and a caller to the Bangor Daily News who voted in Portland said the group doing the recording identified itself as Project Dirigo and was concentrating its recording efforts on someone who was gathering signatures to try to force a referendum on requiring background checks for all gun sales in Maine.
Dunlap said being recorded could be a deterrent for some voters who might otherwise sign the petition.
“Every single problem call I have gotten today is about signature gathering at the polls,” Dunlap said. “The election itself seems to be going pretty smoothly.”
Portland city spokeswoman Jessica Grondin said City Clerk Katherine Jones has been in touch with Dunlap’s office and determined there is no legal problem with the video recordings, which are happening in several Portland locations, as long as the videographers aren’t interfering with the process.
“It is allowed, as long as they are standing back a ways and not interfering with the process,” Grondin said. “The voter has the option of standing turning away from the person who is recording.”
Numerous groups were collecting signatures Tuesday, including proponents of a ranked-choice voting initiative, a group trying to legalize recreational marijuana and the Maine Republican Party, which is collecting signatures to force a statewide vote on a deep cut to the income tax and a range of social service reforms.
Dunlap said his office has advocated in the past for legislation that would bar signature gatherers from operating too close to a polling place, but the Legislature has not opted to do so.
“They want to support people’s right to petition the government, and I have to admit the best place to get good signatures is a polling place because the people coming out are registered voters from that precinct,” Dunlap said.
State law prohibits anyone from trying to influence an election by standing within 250 feet of the entrance to a polling place, but signature gathering is not a prohibited practice.
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