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 their biological sex.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is running for governor as a Democrat, said Tuesday her staff found that more than 12,000 signatures on the petition for the referendum were invalid. That leaves the petition drive a few hundred short of the 67,682 required for the initiative to make the ballot, Bellows said.
The petitioners have 10 days to appeal Bellows' decision. Representatives for Protect Girls Sports in Maine did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, but indicated last week that they would keep pushing for the initiative to appear on the ballot.
The secretary of state's office released a recommended decision about the initiative last week that said the petition “does not meet the constitution threshold” of valid signatures. Leyland Streiff, principal officer of Protect Girls Sports in Maine, said in a statement that the group was “continuing our defense of the Protect Girls Sports ballot measure.”
