The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case of Dennis Blanchet v. Town of Waldoboro for Wed., June 13 at 10:50 a.m. at Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor.
Plaintiffs claim that a 2011 open town meeting, held subsequent to a 2008 referendum vote requiring secret ballots for future elections, violated an ordinance created by that referendum in which citizens voted 1919-717 in favor of the change.
The case was brought in Lincoln County Superior Court against the town of Waldoboro and (in their official capacities) selectmen Steven Cartwright, Clinton Collamore Sr., Craig Cooley, Rebecca Maxwell and Theodore Wooster, as well as Tax Collector Allene Roy and Interim Town Manager Eileen Dondlinger.
On Nov. 14, 2011, Justice Jeffery Hjelm dismissed the lawsuit, writing in his decision, “Any effort to regulate municipal voting methods … through some means other than a municipal charter is ineffective” because it violates state law…the 2008 ordinance that purports to establish a voting procedure is of no effect, because it is not one of the ways that such a format can be established.”
Citing state law in their brief, town attorneys William Kelly and Kristin Collins told the Supreme Judicial Court the town lacks a charter restricting the authority of the Board of Selectmen to set the manner of voting on town business other than the election of candidates.
“One of the institutions we still hold sacred in Maine is the right of people to show up and put their hands in the air and vote,” Kelly said after the 2011 dismissal.
Plaintiffs Blanchet, Travis Reed, Michael Robitaille, John Higgins, Doreen Weiss, Wallace Walton, Patricia Chapman, Duncan Morrell and Scott Dupuis are asking the Law Court to support their claim that the 2008 referendum vote represented the legal exercise of home rule authority and to decide whether the Superior Court was wrong in dismissing the case.
According to a January 2006 article in the Maine Townsman, only a charter may create any binding regulations regarding a town’s voting methods, and final authority for choosing the voting method at any town meeting rests with the board of selectmen.
Waldoboro does not have a town charter.
According to the article, with the exception of certain business, such as the election of town officers, “…a directive to use the secret ballot method of voting … is not legally binding unless it is contained in a municipal charter.”
