Voters in Maine approved a constitutional amendment establishing the state’s initiative and referendum process 117 years ago, on September 15. The vote was 53,785 (68.7%) to 24,543 (31.3%).
Maine was the seventh state to adopt the initiative and referendum, and the first state east of the Mississippi River.
The constitutional amendment provided for an indirect initiated state statute and veto referendum, and allowed for municipal initiatives and referendums, subject to local voter approval. The language required 12,000 signatures for initiated statutes and 10,000 for a veto referendum. In 1947, the requirement for veto referendums was changed from 10,000 signatures to the current requirement—a number equal to 10% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. In 1951, such a change was also applied to initiated statutes.
According to the Initiative and Referendum Institute, Roland T. Patten, editor of the Skowhegan Somerset Reporter, played a central role in promoting the initiative and referendum in Maine. He founded the Initiative and Referendum League of Maine. The Maine Federation of Labor, Maine State Grange, and Maine Civic League also advocated for the amendment. Gov. William T. Cobb (R) endorsed the idea in his inaugural address before the legislation in 1907. The state’s four largest political parties—Republican, Democratic, Socialist, and Prohibition—endorsed the initiative and referendum.
State Rep. Charles F. Johnson (D), who supported the proposal, said, “I believe the people of Maine can be trusted. I believe that Lincoln was right when he said that the great heart of the people beats true and that it can be trusted upon measures of public importance.”
Rod Farmer, a social science professor at the University of Maine, said “the newspapers, with the exception of the Waterville Morning Sentinel, were generally hostile” to the initiative and referendum proposal. In 1908, the Bangor Daily News stated, “This measure is a direct blow to a representative form of government, and has a tendency to lessen the responsibility of representatives of the people, and places in the hands of agitators and cranks a weapon which, from the experience of the few States which have adopted it, has not only caused much needless agitation, but a great financial burden on the taxpayers.”
In the U.S., 26 states have adopted constitutional amendments for citizen-initiated ballot measures. As state constitutional amendments require voter approval, except in Delaware, creating ballot initiative processes required ballot measures, either from state legislatures or constitutional conventions. Most of these amendments originated during the progressive and populist movements of the 1890s to 1920s. Beginning in 1898, voters in 30 states have decided on 42 constitutional amendments to create state initiative and referendum processes. South Dakota was the first state to adopt an initiative and referendum process in 1898.
Along the East Coast, Maine adopted the initiative and referendum in 1908, and Massachusetts in 1918. Maryland adopted the veto referendum, but not initiated legislation, in 1915. Florida adopted a process in 1968. In 1986, voters in Rhode Island rejected Question 5, which would have provided for citizen-initiated ballot measures, among other changes. Voters approved a non-binding question about initiatives in 1996.
Additional reading: