Decriminalized marijuana fails to qualify for ballot

Press Herald - An effort to decriminalize marijuana in Maine did not qualify for the November ballot.Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said in a statement that the proposal did not have enough valid signatures of Maine voters. The campaign needed 61,123 signatures. According to Dunlap’s office, the campaign only provided 51,543 valid signatures.

The campaign turned in 99,229 signatures on Feb. 1.

According to Maine election officials, over 31,000 signatures were deemed invalid because signatures on petitions swearing that the circulator witnessed signature collection did not match his or her signature on file. One circulator was listed as the public notary on 5,099 petitions containing 26,779 signatures.

Other irregularities included 13,525 signatures that were invalid because they did not belong to a registered voter in the municipality where they were submitted.