BANGOR (NEWS CENTER Maine) — As Americans, many people feel it is their civic duty to vote in elections. However, performing that civic duty may seem difficult if you're in a transitional period in your life, for example, if you just moved somewhere new, if you're going to school out of state, or if you're homeless.
In Maine, there are avenues for people going through those transitional times to still cast a vote and have their voice heard in our democratic process.
You do not need a Maine drivers license or ID to vote in Maine. All you need is some sort of valid identification (which could be a drivers license from another state, passport or a birth certificate) and proof that you have a fixed and principal home in Maine.
That proof may include but is not limited to: an electric bill, cable bill, car registration, or lease agreement.
College students from out of state and the homeless also have avenues to register to vote in Maine.
Secretary of State Matt Dunlap says, "If you're a college student from Virginia or Alaska and you're living in the state of Maine, and that's where you plan to stay for the foreseeable future, it's basically a principal residence where you intend to return to and are temporarily absent from, and that counts as apartments, dorm rooms, and even for the homeless, a homeless shelter counts as a physical address for the purpose of voter registration."
If for whatever reason you don't have a lease agreement, utility bill, or any physical proof of your Maine address, as a last resort, you're allowed to take an "oath of residency."
Bangor City Clerk, Lisa Goodwin says, "If you come [to the polls] and you don't have anything and you swear that this is where you live, you can swear an oath that your address is at this certain place and we can let you vote."
A question that frequently pops up surrounding this topic is: can those people from out of state also fill out an absentee ballot for that other state and essentially vote twice? In short, the answer is no. There are a series of checks and balances performed at the state level to ensure that does not happen.