MAINE PUBLIC • September 21, 2021
The campaign seeking to ban electioneering by foreign governments in Maine ballot initiatives is getting early support from donors who backed the 2016 ranked-choice voting referendum and other election reform advocates. The ballot question committee Protect Maine Elections is working to get the measure on the 2022 ballot, and so far, it's getting significant financial support from John and Mary Palmer, who also gave thousands of dollars to the ranked-choice voting campaign. The foreign government electioneering prohibition was prompted by Hydro-Quebec, the Quebec government-owned energy generator that's spent $10 million trying to stop a referendum that could scuttle Central Maine Power's transmission project through western Maine.