Preti Flaherty attorney Daniel Walker successfully represented The Maine
Democratic Party in a Maine Supreme Court case that challenged Herbert Hoffman’s
nominating petition to be a candidate for the U.S. Senate. In its
July 28, 2008 ruling, the Maine Supreme Court, sitting as the Law Court, held
that when petitions in support of a prospective candidate are circulated for
signatures, the circulator must be in the “presence” of the signor, i.e. have
direct personal contact with potential signors and observe the signatures.
The circulator of a nomination petition must swear an oath that all of the
signatures to the petition were made in the circulator’s presence 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.
Walker argued that Herbert Hoffman violated his oath requirement by swearing
that he was in the presence of all of the signatories to the petition, when
three separate signatures on three of his petition sheets were not made in his
presence, and that each of the petition sheets to which Hoffman swore a
false oath should be voided. The Law Court agreed and concluded
that if any signature is collected in violation of this requirement the
appropriate remedy is voiding of the entire petition sheet to which the oath was
sworn.
At the Superior Court level, Justice Marden ruled in favor of Hoffman, but
the Supreme Court disagreed. The Maine Democratic Party believes that Maine’s
ballot access process was at stake in this case. In a statement, our client said
that because of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Maine’s voters can be confident that
all candidates for U.S. Senate are on the ballot justly.
