The Gorham Farmers’ Market has always been a special place for me. I have been selling my homemade granola there for years, and it has always provided me with a space to check in with the community and hear what issues are on my neighbors’ minds. Now that I serve in the Maine House of Representatives, my conversations with people at the farmers’ market have become especially important. It’s there, every Saturday morning from May through October, that I get feedback from Gorham’s parents, students, teachers, workers and small business owners on how state policies are impacting them.
As a public space, people sometimes use the farmers’ market to gather signatures for political causes. A few weeks ago, a group was circulating the market with clipboards, asking folks to sign a people’s veto petition. The organizers of people’s veto campaigns have to gather more than 63,000 valid signatures to suspend a law’s implementation and put it to a referendum.
The petitioners at the farmers’ market were collecting signatures for a people’s veto on L.D. 798, a bill my colleagues and I passed last legislative session to protect our state from the resurgence of preventable diseases. The bill repeals non-medical exemptions for immunizations to curb the rise we have seen around the country of vaccine-preventable diseases. I personally know parents of immunocompromised children who are medically unable to get immunizations, and those families rely on public health policies grounded in science, like the bill we passed, to keep their children safe.
I have been urging my neighbors to make sure they ask lots of questions when they are approached by petitioners this summer. Oftentimes, a petitioner’s brief explanation on why you should add your signature to a list will not give you an accurate overview of the bill you are being asked to oppose. That’s why it’s particularly important that you do your own research about these issues before you sign anything. Most of time you will see the petitioners more than once, so you will have the opportunity to sign again, after you’ve done your own homework.
Maine’s Secretary of State’s office has approved twelve people’s veto petitions, all of which are aimed at policies that my colleagues and I carefully drafted with the input of policy experts and members of the public. In addition to L.D. 798, the targeted bills include L.D. 820, a bill to prevent discrimination in insurance coverage for pregnant Mainers. This bill requires coverage for maternity services, including abortion services, for people with public and private health insurance plans. With respect to religious employers who may oppose these services, my colleagues carefully crafted this bill to ensure that religious institutions can request to be excluded from this policy.
Another bill that you may encounter people gathering veto signatures for is L.D. 1313, the Maine Death with Dignity Act, which authorizes competent, terminally ill state residents who are within six months of death to legally obtain oral medication to peacefully end their life. During the extensive work that the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee did on this bill, the committee members amended it to clarify that an individual health care provider may choose to not participate in providing this medication, but they are obligated to transfer the patient’s medical records to another provider if the patient makes that request.
If you come across anyone collecting people’s veto signatures, it’s likely it will be for one of these three bills. We are fortunate to be living in a democracy, where, if Maine lawmakers pass a bill that the majority of Mainers oppose, we have the right to use people’s veto petitions to put it to referendum.
That being said, I hope everyone gives themselves the chance to research these bills before agreeing to sign anything. I voted in support of these policies after hearing all sides, listening to medical experts and understanding that there were excellent compromises made in every bill that passed.
It continues to be a great honor to serve our tight-knit community in the Maine House of Representatives. If you have any questions or concerns about the bills I’ve discussed here, or anything about state government in general, please feel welcome to get in touch with me by email or stop by the farmers’ market on Saturday to talk in person.
Rep. Maureen “Mo” Terry is serving her second term in the Maine House of Representatives. She is a chef and small business owner with more than 25 years of experience in the food service industry. She serves on the Taxation Committee.
(207) 712-9735 | (800) 423-2900 | maureen.terry@legislature.maine.gov