A Maine initiative intended to limit transgender students' ability to participate in sports has been removed from the ballot because of invalid signatures, the secretary of state ruled Tuesday. The proposal from parents' group Protect Girls Sports in Maine was slated to go before voters in November. It would have asked voters if they wanted to require public schools to restrict access to bathrooms and sports based on the gender denoted on a child's birth certificate.
The oft-repeated claim that organizers gathered roughly 300,000 signatures on a separation petition rests entirely on statements made by one individual: Mitch Sylvestre. There has been no independent verification, no public audit, and no transparent accounting of the signatures themselves. That uncertainty alone should encourage caution. Yet Mitch's number has dominated public discourse as an accepted fact rather than the unverified political assertion that it is.
Orkin's election lawyer, Renee Paradis, accused Rajkumar's campaign staff of pressuring young workers to falsely sign witness statements, affecting over 80% of total signatures.