Democracy Maine is a collaboration between three left-of-center organizations—League of Women Voters of Maine, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, and Maine Students Vote—that advocate for election administration changes and voter-education efforts. ¹ The organizations support various left-of-center causes such as restricting free speech through stricter campaign finance laws and establishing taxpayer-funded political campaigns. ²

Member Organizations

Democracy Maine is a collection of three organizations related to voting and get-out-the-vote advocacy — League of Women Voters of Maine, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, and Maine Students Vote — that coordinate on advocacy and education efforts to promote left-of-center causes related primarily to elections. ³

Maine Citizens for Clean Elections

Maine Citizens For Clean Elections is a left-of-center organization that works on campaign finance and other election-related issues in Maine. It is a supporter of laws restricting what has been defined as freedom of speech since the landmark Supreme Court decision Citizens United through campaign finance laws. It is also an advocate of taxpayer-funded political campaigns, which require taxpayers to fund the political campaigns of candidates with whom they may disagree. ⁴

The organization was founded in 1995 to promote a ballot initiative called the Maine Clean Election Act (MCEA). The MCEA proposed a system of taxpayer-funded elections that would give taxpayer dollars to political candidates that did not take money from certain entities. The MCEA was passed in 1996 and implemented in 2000. ⁵

In addition to supporting taxpayer-funded elections, the group is also an advocate of changing the way Americans vote for president. In 2019, it supported legislation that would have permitted Maine to join the National Popular Vote compact, under which the state would award its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. ⁶

The organization is also a supporter of ranked-choice voting. In 2016, Maine voters approved an initiative that enacted ranked choice voting in the state. ⁷ Ranked choice voting was enacted after a Republican governor was elected twice with less than 50 percent of the vote. ⁸

In 2021, the organization supported the For the People Act on the federal level. The legislation would allow for a federal takeover of election procedures and more restrictions on freedom of speech through campaign finance restrictions. ⁹

Maine Students Vote

Maine Students Vote is the youth affiliate of Democracy Maine that focuses on voter engagement at college campuses. ¹⁰

Funding

According to its 2019 tax returns, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections reported revenue of $575,224 and expenses of $417,806. It had $314,517 in assets. ¹¹ In 2018, MCCE received $660,000 from the William & Flora Hewitt Foundation. ¹²

Democracy Maine is a member of the Declaration for American Democracy, a coalition of left-leaning activist groups that advocates for a series of governmental and electoral administration policy changes. The coalition supports proposed federal legislation that would enact several left-leaning policy priorities regarding elections including automatic voter registration and restrictive regulations on political campaign-related speech acts. The organization is a project of Public Citizen Foundation, a left of center advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader. ¹³

The Declaration for American Democracy advocates for bills in Congress and publicly promotes the need for left-leaning campaign and electoral administration policies. In May 2020, the organization sent an open letter to all 2020 presidential candidates urging them to adopt the coalition’s positions as part of their campaign platform and as policy priorities if elected. The coalition also launched a presidential candidate tracker to assess where each candidate stood on over 90 various policy issues. ¹⁴ Left-wing Democratic primary candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was listed as in support of the most of the policy positions on the Declaration for American Democracy’s platform. ¹⁵

People

The executive director of both Maine Citizens for Clean Elections and the League of Women Voters of Maine is Anna Keller. Keller was appointed joint executive director of both organizations in 2017. Keller has been with the organization since 2014. ¹⁶

Allyson Gardner is the director of Maine Students Vote. ¹⁷

Jill Ward is the president of both Maine Citizens for Clean Elections and the League of Women Voters of Maine. She has been involved with MCCE since 2008. She previously worked with the left-of-center organizations Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Children’s Defense Fund. ¹⁸

1. “About Democracy Maine.” Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.democracymaine.org/dm/about
2. Anderson, Theo. “Maine Leads The Nation In Campaign Finance Reform.” In These Times. Dec. 13, 2016. https://inthesetimes.com/article/maine-leads-the-nation-in-campaign-finance-reform.
3. “About Democracy Maine.” Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.democracymaine.org/dm/about
4. Anderson, Theo. “Maine Leads The Nation In Campaign Finance Reform.” In These Times. Dec. 13, 2016. https://inthesetimes.com/article/maine-leads-the-nation-in-campaign-finance-reform.
5.  Anderson, Theo. “Maine Leads The Nation In Campaign Finance Reform.” In These Times. Dec. 13, 2016. https://inthesetimes.com/article/maine-leads-the-nation-in-campaign-finance-reform.
6. Neumann, Dan. “21 Democrats Join House Republicans In Opposition To National Popular Vote.” Beacon. May 31, 2019. https://mainebeacon.com/21-democrats-join-house-republicans-in-opposition-to-national-popular-vote/
7. Ranked Choice Voting Initiative.” Accessed January 31, 2023.
   https://ballotpedia.org/Maine_Question_5,_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative_(2016).
8. Kellar, Anna. “On The Road To Making Our Democracy More Democratic.” Beacon. February 14, 2018. https://mainebeacon.com/on-the-road-to-making-our-democracy-more-democratic/.
9. ^[1] “Freedom To Vote Act.” Maine Citizens For Clean Elections. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.mainecleanelections.org/S1.
10. “About Democracy Maine.” Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.democracymaine.org/dm/about
11. Maine Citizens For Clean Elections. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990), 2019. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/272646667/202013529349300206/full.
12. ^[1] “Maine Citizens For Clean Elections—For General Operating Support.” Hewlett Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/maine-citizens-for-clean-elections-for-general-operating-support/.
13. “About.” Declaration for American Democracy. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://declarationforamericandemocracy.org/about/
14. “The Positions.” Democracy Platform 2020. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20200926055422/https://democracyplatform2020.org/the-positions/
15. “The Positions.” Democracy Platform 2020. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20200926055422/https://democracyplatform2020.org/the-positions/
16. “MCCE Staff.” Maine Citizens For Clean Elections. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.mainecleanelections.org/staff
17. “MCCE Staff.” Maine Citizens For Clean Elections. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.mainecleanelections.org/staff.
18. “Our Board.” Maine Citizens For Clean Elections. Accessed January 31, 2023 https://www.mainecleanelections.org/node/2979.