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Independent Candidate Wants To Visit Polling Places On Primary Election Day

Independent Maine gubernatorial candidate Terry Hayes wants her campaign volunteers to be able to show up at polling places on primary election day to distribute and display campaign literature and materials, speak with voters and collect $5 contributions for Hayes’ clean election effort.

Newell Augur, legal counsel for the Hayes for Maine campaign, says they have been told several times they can’t do that because of a statute that places restrictions on activities at polling places by a candidate whose name appears on the ballot on that election day.

Auger says the provision does not apply to Hayes, who’s an independent and is not facing a primary challenge, and so the campaign has filed a complaint in Superior Court.

“Until and unless we get confirmation from them that that statute does not apply to us, and the plain reading of it clearly does not apply, then we have no other recourse but to go to the judicial system to have an interpretation of the plain meaning of that statute,” he says.

The Maine secretary of state’s office says it can’t comment on pending litigation. However, a memo sent to the Hayes campaign indicates that the type of activity it wants to engage in falls under a different provision, one pertaining to signature gathering.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.