For at least 30 years, state lawmakers in Augusta have fiercely debated whether Maine voters should be required to show a photo ID before casting a ballot. And in every instance, those voter ID proposals have failed at the Legislature.
Next month, Maine voters will get their chance to weigh in on the long-simmering issue.
But Question 1 isn’t merely about voter ID. The initiative also aims to make numerous changes to an absentee balloting process that’s so popular that roughly 45% of Maine voters cast absentee ballots during the November 2024 elections.
That has led to competing narratives about Question 1’s true objectives and potential impacts, perhaps best epitomized by the names of the groups leading the fight on either side: Voter ID for ME and the Save Maine Absentee Voting Coalition.
Opponents of Question 1 have focused nearly all of their criticism on the absentee ballot changes rather than the voter ID provisions. And they accuse the conservative group behind the referendum of trying to disenfranchise voters ahead of the 2026 elections.
“Question one is an absolute attack on absentee voting in Maine,” said David Farmer, spokesman for Save Maine Absentee Voting, who noted that about 60% of senior citizens voted absentee last year. “Thousands of people will be denied their ability to vote, and that will reduce their ability to have their voices heard in our democratic process.”
The architects of the Question 1 campaign, meanwhile, bristle at such claims and accuse the other side of attempting to scare voters about absentee balloting because photo ID requirements consistently draw bipartisan support.
“The big change for our elections is the requirement for a photo ID. All of the other stuff is really minor,” said Alex Titcomb, campaign manager for Voter ID for ME, the group behind Question 1. “The opposition campaign is making a big deal about these small things.”
In this edition of the Political Pulse, we’ll dive into the details of Question 1, its history and the arguments each side is using to reach potential voters during an off-year election expected to see low turnout at the polls.
Voter ID in Question 1
Question 1 qualified for the November ballot after Titcomb and his allies led a grassroots campaign to collect more than 170,000 petition signatures from voters across the state, which was about 100,000 more than was needed.
The initiative can be broken down into two parts: one adding a photo ID requirement to cast a vote and the other changing the absentee balloting process.
If enacted, the proposed law would require anyone voting at their polling place to show one of the following types of photo identification before they can enter the voting booth:
- Maine driver’s license
- Non-driver ID card or interim ID card
- U.S. passport or passport card
- Or ID cards issued by the U.S. military, the Maine National Guard or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Anyone unable to produce a photo ID at the polls could still cast what’s known as a “challenged ballot” that day. But in order for their votes to be counted, they would have to produce a photo ID or submit an affidavit claiming a religious exemption within four days of the election.
Individuals voting absentee would also have to prove their identity by including either their driver’s license or non-driver ID card numbers or photocopies of an acceptable ID along with their completed ballots.
Those new requirements would kick in January 1, meaning anyone hoping to vote for governor, Congress or local offices in 2026 would need a photo ID. The law also requires Maine’s secretary of state to provide free, non-driver ID cards to anyone who needs one.
Thirty-six states have adopted some form of Voter ID, although the laws vary. As of earlier this year, 23 of those states only accepted photo IDs while 13 accepted non-photo documentation, such as a bank statement or a utility bill, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.
“We have a democratic republic,” said Titcomb. “We do that by voting, by regular citizens engaging in and casting their ballot. And evidence and common sense shows that, you know, people have greater confidence, greater trust, in the process when they're asked for an ID.”
Opponents, meanwhile, allege that voter ID laws only disenfranchise populations of voters who are less likely to have a driver’s license — such as the elderly, minorities and those living in larger cities. They also assert that the photo ID requirement is trying to solve a non-existent problem.
“All of the evidence suggests that voter IDs don’t prevent voter fraud,” said the League of Women Voters. “Maine has safeguards in place to prevent fraud, cyber attacks, and other kinds of foul play that would attempt to subvert our elections.”
Absentee ballot changes in Question 1
Voter ID takes up just two of the 11 pages of the bill behind Question 1. The other nine pages are devoted to proposed changes to Maine’s popular absentee balloting program, which allows citizens to vote by mail or in-person prior to Election Day.
The proposal would:
- Eliminate two days of absentee balloting by moving up the deadline to return completed ballots.
- Eliminate the option for voters to request an absentee ballot via telephone or have an immediate family member request a ballot for them.
- End the program that allows voters age 65 or older and disabled voters to have ballots automatically mailed to them each election. That automatic-delivery option will be available to all voters next year unless Question 1 becomes law.
- Limit municipalities to one ballot drop-box.
- Require a bipartisan team of volunteers to retrieve ballots from drop-boxes each day.
- Require voters requesting an absentee ballot to provide proof of their identity, such as a driver’s license number or a photocopy of an approved photo ID.
- Prohibit towns from including pre-paid postage on ballot return envelopes.
Titcomb calls those changes “minor” but says they are part of a broader goal of preventing problems in the first place rather than having to quickly respond after the fact.
“Let's create good policy so we don't have issues in the future,” Titcomb said.
Farmer with Save Maine Absentee Voting strongly disagreed with that characterization.
“It won't be relatively minor to the thousands of people who will lose their ability to vote,” Farmer said. “The two most popular in-person, absentee voting days are being eliminated by this question. The bottom line is, the absentee provisions will have a much greater impact on voters than the other elements.”
Legal wrangling over wording
The fight over Question 1 began as soon as Secretary of State Shenna Bellows released the wording of the ballot initiative in May.
Voter ID for ME claimed Bellows buried the primary focus on their campaign – requiring voters to show a photo ID – behind five changes to the absentee balloting process. They accused Bellows, a Democrat who is running for governor, of intentionally crafting a lengthy, confusing and misleading ballot question because of her personal opposition to voter ID laws.
The group challenged the question’s wording in court. But two Maine courts rejected the appeal, ruling that the wording was understandable and would not mislead a “reasonable voter reading the question for the first time.”
“Although the question is longer than most have been in the past, that is because it lists the salient features of the legislation in short, easily understood phrases,” Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled in July. “The wording may be complex, but it is not complicated.”
Nonetheless, Titcomb still argues the wording will negatively affect his side’s campaign because he believes most voters won’t read the entire question.
“It allowed the opposition to then kind of use that as a springboard and craft their narrative against it,” Titcomb said. “They're not even talking about Voter ID because they know Voter ID is supported by ... probably closer to 70% in Maine.”
Again, Farmer countered that opponents are focused on the most impactful aspects of the proposal – and that the initiative’s overambitious authors created their own mess.
“It could have been a one-line bill, if that's what they were concerned about,” Farmer said. “But instead, they took a kitchen sink approach trying to undermine participation in Maine elections.”
Who is behind — and who is funding — the campaigns?
Both groups are being heavily funded, at least in part, by out-of-state groups but also by local residents.
Voter ID for ME is effectively an offshoot of a political action committee, Dinner Table Action, that has become an influential voice in Maine’s conservative activist scene in recent years.
Dinner Table Action is led by Titcomb and Rep. Laurel Libby, a state lawmaker from Auburn who is frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for higher office. Libby garnered national attention this year by effectively lighting the spark (via a controversial Facebook post) that led to Maine’s legal and political showdown with the Trump administration over transgender athletes.
Titcomb and Libby are among the most prolific Republican fundraisers in Maine through Dinner Table Action and a second PAC that Titcomb also runs, For Our Future. They also have a growing network of national connections, including to deep-pocketed groups affiliated with Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society co-chair credited with helping reshape the federal judiciary in recent years. Leo has a house on Mount Desert Island and has expressed growing interest in state-level politics, including in Maine.
Voter ID for ME has received the bulk of its money — $500,000 of the roughly $550,000 it had received through June — from the Republican State Leadership Committee, or RSLC. Although the RSLC receives donations from a broad spectrum of conservative and business groups, one of the organizations linked to Leo, the Judicial Crisis Network, has been a top funder of the RSLC in every election cycle since 2018. The Judicial Crisis Network is also known as The Concord Fund, which has donated $375,000 to Titcomb’s For Our Future.
Titcomb is Voter ID for ME’s only paid staffer but he says the group has hundreds of volunteers.
On the other side, the group leading the fight against Question 1, Save Maine Absentee Voting, is a coalition made up of more than 30 other groups. Those groups run the gamut from the Maine People’s Alliance and the Maine AFL-CIO to environmental organizations and advocacy groups like Disability Rights Maine and the Wabanaki Alliance.
Save Maine Absentee Voting received more than $600,000 in donations as of the end of June (campaign finance reports covering from July 1 through Sept. 30 aren’t due until early-October).
The largest contributor through that date was Justin Alfond, a former state senator from Portland who donated $130,000 to the campaign. Democracy Fund Voice, a progressive advocacy group founded and funded by eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar, donated $100,000 to the campaign while another left-leaning group, State Democracy Action Fund, contributed $75,000.
Several other national groups — including the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — have also formed local committees and spent tens of thousands to defeat Question 1.
This edition of Maine's Political Pulse was written by State House correspondent Kevin Miller and produced by news editor Andrew Catalina. Read past editions or listen to the Political Pulse podcast at mainepublic.org/pulse.
