Maine Revised Statutes

Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 21-A, § 902 (2026)

Verification and certification

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section ME-LEGlegislature.maine.gov JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar
The verification and certification of the petition as required by the Constitution of Maine, Article IV, Part Third, Section 20 must be worded so that a single verification or certification may cover one or more pages fastened together as a single petition.   [PL 2017, c. 277, §4 (AMD).]
The petitions must be signed in the same manner as are nonparty nomination petitions under section 354, subsections 3 and 4. The circulator of a petition must sign the petition and verify by oath or affirmation before a notary public or other person authorized by law to administer oaths or affirmations that the circulator personally witnessed all of the signatures to the petition and that to the best of the circulator's knowledge and belief each signature is the signature of the person whose name it purports to be and that each signature authorized under section 153‑A was made by the authorized signer in the presence and at the direction of the voter. After administering the oath to the circulator, the notary public or other authorized person must sign the notarial certificate on the petition while in the presence of the circulator. After the petition is signed and verified in this manner, the petition must be submitted to the registrar for certification in accordance with the Constitution of Maine, Article IV, Part Third, Section 20. If the petitions submitted to the registrar are not signed and verified in accordance with this paragraph, the registrar may not certify the petitions and is required only to return the petitions. The clerk or registrar shall keep a log of petitions submitted to the municipal office for verification. The log must contain the title of the petition, the name of the person submitting the petition, the date of submission, the number of petition forms submitted and the date and manner by which the petitions were returned. The notary public or other authorized person who administered the oath to the circulator must keep a log of petitions for which that person administered the circulator's oath, listing the title of the petition, the name of the circulator taking the oath, the date of the oath and the number of petition forms signed and verified by the circulator that day.   [PL 2017, c. 277, §4 (AMD).]
SECTION HISTORY
PL 1985, c. 161, §6 (NEW). PL 1997, c. 581, §5 (AMD). PL 2009, c. 611, §2 (AMD). PL 2011, c. 342, §31 (AMD). PL 2017, c. 277, §4 (AMD).
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 8 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 2001–2021 · leading case: Delbert A. Reed v. Sec'y of State, 2020 ME 57 (Me. 2020).
Delbert A. Reed v. Sec'y of State, 2020 ME 57 (Me. 2020). · cites it 4× “152, § 1 (effective Sept. 19, 2019). 4 administer oaths or affirmations that the circulator personally witnessed all of the signatures to the petition and that to the best of the circulator’s knowledge and belief each signature is the signature of the person whose name it…”
Delbert A. Reed v. Sec'y of State, 2020 ME 57 (Me. 2020). · cites it 4× “152, § 1 (effective Sept. 19, 2019). 4 administer oaths or affirmations that the circulator personally witnessed all of the signatures to the petition and that to the best of the circulator’s knowledge and belief each signature is the signature of the person whose name it…”
Jones v. Sec'y of State (Me. Super. Ct 2020). · cites it 2× “Again, relevant to this case, the statute states that a notary must take the circulator' s oath and sign the petition.”
Reed v. Dunlap (Me. Super. Ct 2020). · cites it 2× “Skidmore that she was required to read the oath to each circulator, watch the circulator sign his or her name to the oath, and then sign her name as notary in the circulator’s presence- in accordance with 21-A M.R.S. § 902. The Secretary found that from that point on, Ms.”
We the People Pac v. Dunlap (D. Me. 2021). “” 21-A M.R.S. § 902. Furthermore, Maine statutes require that petition sponsors provide a list of paid circulators and that circulators publicly identify themselves on each page of the petition.”
Ripley Rd. Assocs., LLC v. Town of Kittery (Me. Super. Ct 2001). “However, 21-A M.R.S.A. § 902 governs referendum petitions provided for in the Maine Constitution, art.”
McGee v. Sec'y of State (Me. Super. Ct 2006). “§ 901- A(2); the verification and certification of a petition must be worded so that a single verification or certification may cover one or more pages, 21-A M.R.S.A. § 902; the Secretary of State shall prepare complete instructions and provide certain language in bold type or…”
Johnson v. Dunlap (Me. Super. Ct 2009). “§ 354(7)(C)(providing that, for nomination petitions, the registrar "shall certify which names on a petition appear in the central voter registration system as registered voters in that municipality and may not certify any names that do not satisfy subsection 34 ").”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.