We heard from our friend Mary Adams of Garland this week. She's the mover and shaker who spearheaded the successful citizen initiative petition drive nearly 25 years ago which overturned the uniform property tax adopted by the Maine legislature. Those of you who are ``older,'' and/or have lived in Maine since the 1970s, will remember that the tax placed a tremendous burden on towns such as ours by taking our hard-earned property tax monies and turning them over to the state to be redistributed to ``less fortunate'' towns to support their schools.

The tax would have devastated small communities such as Southport and Bristol with low populations but high valuation property. However, these small towns were outnumbered (and thus outvoted) in Augusta, and had nowhere to turn; they watched helplessly as the grossly unfair proposal was voted into law. That was until Mary Adams came to the rescue with a petition drive to put the question to voters. She also successfully campaigned tirelessly against the unfairness of the bill and the loss of control at the local level, urging that the new law be voted out. The people of Maine listened, and even communities which stood to gain substantially at the expense of the rest of us came down on the side of fairness and voted to overturn the law.

Now, Mary Adams, a champion of common sense, is at it again. This time, she's got her sights set on some of our legislators who have given their approval to LD 314, which would make it impossible for people to have petitions available for signing at polling places (and possibly even within 250 feet of any voting place).

Having experienced the difficulties of obtaining the thousands and thousands of signatures needed to get a question on the ballot here in Maine (right now, it would take about 41,000), Mary Adams is convinced that a longstanding freedom is being threatened. She has a problem with prohibiting signature-gatherers from sitting quietly at a table in a polling building and accepting signatures from passersby as they come or go from the voting booth.

It's important to note that she recognizes that petitioners disrupting the polling places can and should be legally removed at any time, and can be under existing law. We wholeheartedly agree, because we don't think any Maine voter should have to face picketers and disruptive individuals when they go to cast their vote in any election. In fact, even those sitting quietly at tables should be situated in the polling places in such a manner as not to intimidate voters coming and going. We've always thought that having clear, easy-to-read signs indicating what their petition is all about would make it easier for voters to recognize those petitions which interest them without having to ask each and every petitioner. It would also save them the embarrassment of saying no to their friend or neighbor sitting on the other side of the table, if they don't support the petition after they find out what it's all about.

Mary Adams brings up very good points in explaining why banning petitioners from the polling places would be a bad idea. Polling places represent the best and easiest way to reach most voters. Going door to door to gather petitions is not only time-consuming, but can be very expensive if you can't find volunteers to do it. To her way of thinking, it means that those who have big bucks and much to gain by potential legislation will have the ability to circulate petitions while those championing good causes but without large sums of money behind them will find themselves out in left field.

The voters of Maine should have an easy way to bring legislation before all of the people. It shouldn't take unreasonable effort or a lot of money to do it. The harder it is, the less Big Government will have to worry about hearing from grassroots America. And Mary Adams sees this as one more blow to our freedom.

We encourage you to ask your legislator about LD 314, where they stand on it, and why. If their argument is simply that it will be ``less disruptive'' at the polls without petitioners, ask if there isn't a better way to control them than outlawing them completely. It makes a lot more sense to have petitions available for signing at our polling places than having them circulated in malls, or by folks going door to door.

- Mary Brewer