Maine § 21-A §1055-A Political public communications to influence a ballot question

Maine Statutes

§ 21-A §1055-A — Political public communications to influence a ballot question

Maine § 21-A §1055-A

Title 21-AELECTIONS

Ch. 13CAMPAIGN REPORTS AND FINANCES

This text of Maine § 21-A §1055-A (Political public communications to influence a ballot question) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 21-A, § 21-A §1055-A (2026).

Text

1.Public communications to influence ballot question elections. Whenever a person makes an expenditure exceeding $500 for a public communication expressly advocating for or against an initiative or referendum that is on the ballot, the public communication must clearly and conspicuously state the name and address of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the public communication, except that telephone calls must clearly state only the name of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the public communication. A digital public communication, including the transmission of text messages with the assistance of mass distribution technology, costing more than $500 that expressly advocates for or against an initiative or referendum or that includes a link to a publicly acc

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1.
Public communications to influence ballot question elections.
Whenever a person makes an expenditure exceeding $500 for a public communication expressly advocating for or against an initiative or referendum that is on the ballot, the public communication must clearly and conspicuously state the name and address of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the public communication, except that telephone calls must clearly state only the name of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the public communication. A digital public communication, including the transmission of text messages with the assistance of mass distribution technology, costing more than $500 that expressly advocates for or against an initiative or referendum or that includes a link to a publicly accessible website containing express advocacy must clearly and conspicuously state the name of the person who made or financed the expenditure, unless the digital communication is excluded under subsection 2. A website established by a person required to register as a ballot question committee expressly advocating for or against an initiative or referendum must clearly and conspicuously state the name and address of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the website. Telephone surveys that meet generally accepted standards for polling research and that are not conducted for the purpose of influencing the voting position of call recipients are not required to include the disclosure.
2.
Exceptions.
The following forms of political public communication do not require the name and address of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the public communication because the name or address would be so small as to be illegible or infeasible: clothing, envelopes and stationery, small promotional items, tickets to fundraisers and electronic media advertisements where compliance with this section would be impracticable due to size or character limitations and similar items determined by the commission to be too small and unnecessary for the disclosures required by this section. "Small promotional items" includes but is not limited to ashtrays, badges and badge holders, balloons, campaign buttons, coasters, combs, emery boards, erasers, glasses, key rings, letter openers, matchbooks, nail files, noisemakers, paper and plastic cups, pencils, pens, plastic tableware, 12-inch or shorter rulers and swizzle sticks.
3.
Enforcement.
A violation of this section may result in a penalty of no more than $5,000. In assessing a penalty, the commission shall consider, among other things, how widely the communication was disseminated, whether the violation was intentional, whether the violation occurred as the result of an error by a printer or other paid vendor and whether the communication conceals or misrepresents the identity of the person who financed it.