State elections officials on Thursday chose the order of the two referendum questions that will appear on the fall ballot.
Question 1 asks voters whether they want to require individuals to show a photo ID before casting a ballot starting next year. The proposal would also make several changes to Maine's absentee ballot process, eliminating two days of early voting and limiting municipalities to just one ballot drop box.
Question 2, meanwhile, is a proposal from gun control groups to create a "red flag" gun law in Maine. It would allow family or household members to directly petition a judge to order someone to temporarily surrender their guns. Maine's current "yellow flag" law only allows police to begin that process with the courts. The current law also requires that a medical professional agree that the individual poses a risk to themselves or others before their guns can be confiscated.
To determine the order on the ballot, pieces of paper featuring the questions were placed in a bowl. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows then blindly drew the Voter ID initiative as the first question.
Election Day is November 4.
