Backers of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) are filing a lawsuit today to challenge the disqualification of a petition that would have put the question of cannabis legalization before voters this November.
There is a news conference taking place today at 1 p.m. ET in Portland, Maine, during which David Boyer of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and attorney Scott Anderson will announce the details of the lawsuit.
The controversy originally sparked last week when Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced that more than 17,000 voters who signed the legalization petition had been disqualified due to a single faulty signature — that of an official notary, whose signature ultimately did not match the one the state had on file.
“We are exploring all legal means available to appeal this determination, and we sincerely hope that 17,000-plus Maine citizens will not be disenfranchised due to a handwriting technicality,” David Boyer, who serves as Maine’s political director for the MPP, declared in a written statement last week.
61,123 valid signatures were required for the initiative to make November’s ballot, but the state only accepted 51,543 of the submitted signatures.