Maine is holding its presidential primary on Tuesday, March 3, along with 13 other states also voting on Super Tuesday. In addition, Maine residents will be voting then in a special referendum on a people's veto petition to overturn a new state law that removes religious and philosophical exemptions for vaccination requirements.
     While only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote on the presidential primary ballot, all registered voters in the state can vote on the referendum. Maine residents can register to vote in person at their town office or city hall and can register on Election Day at their polling place.

Presidential primary candidates
     In the presidential primary for the Republican Party, the only candidate is the current incumbent, President Donald Trump of Palm Beach, Fla.
     A total of 12 candidates will be listed on the Maine ballot for the Democratic Party, but four of the candidates -- New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, self-help author Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang, founder of Venture for America -- have now dropped out of the race.
     The eight candidates who are still running are: former Vice President Joseph Biden of Wilmington, Del.; billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg of NYC; former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Peter Buttigieg; Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a combat veteran from Honolulu; Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minneapolis; Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders of Burlington; billionaire, hedge fund manager and philanthropist Thomas Steyer of San Francisco; and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren of Cambridge.
     For many years Maine used a caucus system to distribute pledged national delegates to the national conventions, but recently the Maine Legislature decided to change Maine to a presidential primary state. However, both Democrats and Republicans are still holding caucuses. Washington County Republicans have been holding their caucuses recently to elect delegates and alternates to the Republican State Convention. Democrats will hold their caucuses on Sunday, March 8.

Vaccination question
     The referendum question asks whether voters want to reject the new state law that would eliminate the ability to claim a religious or philosophical objection as the basis for avoiding the requirement for certain categories of people to be immunized against certain communicable diseases. The following categories of individuals are required by law to be immunized against communicable diseases: students who attend public or private elementary and secondary schools; students who attend any post‑secondary school in Maine; employees of nursery schools, but not daycare facilities; and employees of designated health care facilities. The specific diseases for which immunization or proof of immunity is required are diphtheria, chickenpox, measles, mumps, pertussis, poliomyelitis, rubella, meningococcal meningitis and tetanus. Individuals are medically exempt from the immunization requirement if they submit a written statement from a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant indicating that immunization against one or more of these diseases may be medically inadvisable for that individual. The exemption is up to the provider's professional judgment.
     The group "Yes on 1 Maine to Reject Big Pharma" seeks to overturn the law by urging a yes vote. Their website states: "Mandates coerce compliance with the rapidly increasing vaccine schedule (currently 69 vaccine doses by the age of 18) using the threat of expulsion from school or termination from employment. With the passage of LD 798, Maine became only the fifth state in the nation to remove religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccination, eliminating parents and employees rights to decide what is injected into their own bodies and the bodies of their children. If Mainers do not comply with the new law and choose to opt out of even one dose of a required vaccine, they face expulsion from all public, private, parochial and online schools (preschool through graduate school) as well as termination from employment."
     The website also states, "Vaccines are created, manufactured and sold by drug companies. They carry the same risks and side effects as the drugs you see advertised on TV, ranging from swelling at injection site, fever, and rash to encephalopathy, seizures and death. Yet unlike other pharmaceutical products, Big Pharma bears no liability for injuries that occur as a result of vaccines. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is a fund, paid for by taxpayers, that reimburses those seriously injured by vaccines. To date, the NVICP has paid out over $4 billion dollars."
     Many doctors, nurses and health professionals are urging a no vote, pointing to the need for and safety of vaccines. In a written statement, Dr. Laura Blaisdell and Caitlin Gilmet, co‑chairs of Maine Families for Vaccines, state, "We have one chance to vote no and prevent the spread of infectious disease in our schools and communities. Question 1 endangers our children. If this measure passes, more of them will get sick from preventable diseases including measles, mumps and whooping cough."
     They point to all of the major organizations of healthcare professionals in Maine who oppose the ballot question and agree that public school children should be vaccinated against certain diseases.      "These preventable illnesses can have devastating effects on children, especially those who are medically vulnerable, and on adults with compromised immune systems," their statement says.      
     "Repealing the vaccination law could have catastrophic effects to health and wellness for infants, children and adults living with complex medical conditions, seniors and pregnant women. No one has the right to put a child at risk -- we must defend the right of every child, and every adult, to be safe from disease."
     Dr. Deborah Hagler, president of the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, writes, "Vaccination is unique within the realm of medical interventions because it not only provides a benefit to the patient who is vaccinated, but also confers a significant public health benefit in terms of community immunity. Similarly, refusal of vaccination not only puts the individual child at risk, but also increases societal risk by decreasing community immunity and adding to a population of unimmunized individuals within which vaccine‑preventable disease may spread."