“Mainers have rallied to the cause to protect voting rights,” said Barbara McDade, the president of the League of Women Voters of Maine and the person who helped to launch the people’s veto campaign. “Our right to vote is fundamental. Thousands of people have signed on to make sure that every eligible person can vote. Today we have taken an important step in restoring Election Day registration.”

Eighteen organizations formed a successful coalition, along with hundreds of individuals, to fight a new law LD 1376, which eliminates Election Day voter registration. They gathered enough signatures to place the People’s Veto on the ballot this November. Once the signatures are verified the law will be suspended to allow the people to vote on the measure.

“This is the essence of democracy. It’s a faith in the power of what regular people can do when we cross our differences and work together,” said Ben Chin, the field director for Protect Maine Votes and the political engagement director for the Maine People’s Alliance. “More than a thousand Mainers, representing every political party and a broad coalition of groups, came together to collect more than 68,000 signatures in less than a month. The level of support and energy has been inspiring, as people all around Maine have come together to meet the challenge. Mainers take their right to vote seriously, and they won’t let anyone take it away.”

Over the past thirty-eight years only one case of voter fraud occurred in Maine.

“This law is a solution in search of a problem. Maine does not have a fraud problem. Maine’s voting laws maximize voter participation,” said Minority House leader Emily Cain.

During the election that President Barack Obama was elected close to 60 thousand people in Maine registered on Election Day.

“Twenty thousand voters registered this past election, forty thousand the year before. We have not had a blip on the radar when it come s to fraud. Without questions we are going to be sending qualified voters home on Election Day because of this law if we don’t repeal it. The last thing you ever want to do is to turn a voter away at the polls because it’s likely that they won’t come back,” said Cain. “I work with a bipartisan group at the University of Maine to register voters before election day because we know it’s better that they show up at the polls already on the list. We want to make sure when people want to vote for the first time that they will be able to.”

Maine has one of the safest and most secure voting systems that Cain said other state should follow as a model.

“Our electronic voting system will catch the same name if people are voting in different locations under that same name. Maine is a great example of Democracy at its best when it comes to voting,” she said.

The new law, championed by House Speaker Robert Nutting, and Secretary of State Charlie Summers, passed along party lines. Only three Republicans in the Legislature sided with Democrats, who all voted against the measure.

Changing the status quo would have disenfranchised tens of thousands of would be voters who register on Election Day.

“This is the most anti-Democratic bill that came out of the session. It’s been driven by people that want to disenfranchise college students, the disabled, and people with busy lives that might live in rural Maine with town halls that may only open one day a week,” said State Senator Justin Alfond. “It takes people’s voices form the voting process. They claim that there has been fraud with unsubstantiated stories. It’s a complete fantasy. Pure politics is behind this. We have huge voter turn out and engagement in Maine. Our citizens want to be involved in the voting process.”

Republicans said that it will help prevent voter fraud, and that no qualified voters will be prevented from voting.

“I think regular people are smart enough to figure out that … if they’re legitimate Maine citizens, they’ll just simply go and register two days early,” said Charlie Webster, chairman of the Maine Republican Party, when the People’s Veto campaign was announced.

That’s not so easy for many citizens.

“Same-day registration is vastly important to people with disabilities because community service organizations and political parties often coordinate transportation services to assist individuals with accessing their local polling places,” said Sara Squires of the Disability Rights Center.

“We have hundreds of town offices in Maine, not all of them can be open five days a week, most are not open beyond regular working hours. We do not have public transportation in most of our state,” said Cain. “If you can get to the polls, you can get there only once.”

Forty-two states no have laws that don’t allow same voter day registration, many of these laws came into being after last November’s elections where Tea Party candidates took many seats in State Houses’ and in Congress.

“Republicans nationwide want to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters because it will help them at the polls. It’s sad that the Republican agenda is built on disenfranchising citizens,” said Alfond who helped sign up people for the referendum.

Rep. Cain added, “I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of people steeping up and asking, ‘why would we do this?’ Just because this is part of a national right wing agenda in other states it does not mean that it is right for Maine.”

Republican House Speaker Bob Nutting described the people’s veto supporters as “extreme left-wing groups and individuals” who are backing an initiative that will be rejected by Maine voters.

Jason Gayne a former organizer for the Maine College Republicans and a former Republican House candidate, who gathered hundreds of signatures said, “I’ve always worked to include as many people as possible in our elections, whether they agree with me or not, because our democracy works best when more people are involved, not less. Voting is a prestigious right and we must ensure that everyone, regardless of age, income or ZIP code, exercises it.”

“Voting is a one of our most cherished constitutional rights, fundamental to our democracy,” said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union.