Dear Editor:

Here in Lincoln County, the Maine Citizens for Clean Elections (MCCE) action group is recruiting volunteers to collect signatures on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4. MCCE believes that everyone should be represented in our democracy — not just the wealthy, that we need to keep the power of our government where it belongs — in the hands of the people, and that we deserve politicians who are accountable to us.

Maine was the first to enact a clean election law back in 1996, but because of recent Supreme Court decisions, this law has been weakened. The purpose of the current initiative is to reinforce what we already have, and to make running as a clean election candidate a viable option in our state.

In order to get this nonpartisan initiative placed on the 2015 ballot, we need to collect 50,000 signatures, and we hope to be able to do this on Nov. 4. Two hundred polling stations throughout Maine have been selected, and each location is in need of at least four volunteers in order to cover all four shifts.

Here in Lincoln County, the towns of Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Bristol, Damariscotta, Dresden, Jefferson, Newcastle, Nobleboro, Waldoboro, Whitefield and Wiscasset have been selected. You do not need to be a resident in those towns in order to collect signatures, just a registered voter in the state of Maine. If you could spare three or four hours on Election Day to collect signatures for this important initiative, please call 207-380-7716. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

If you wish to know who is running as a clean election candidate in the upcoming election, you can find out at: http://mainecampaignfinance.com/PublicSite/SearchPages/CandidateList.aspx

Susan van Alsenoy

Wiscasset