Explaining the Vaccination People’s Veto on The Ballot In March

Mainers who go to the polls on March 3 for the Presidential Primaries will find one State Referendum on their ballot as well. If you haven't heard about it, let's break it down for you.

Governor Janet Mills signed legislation into law on May 24, 2019 that eliminates religious and philosophical exemptions from vaccination requirements for students to attend schools and colleges and for employees of healthcare facilities. Basically, if your kids aren't vaccinated, they can't go to public schools. Medical exemptions are still allowed.

On September 18, 2019, Mainers for Health and Parental Rights gathered enough signatures to force a people's veto referendum that will appear on the March 3 ballot.

Here's how the question reads:

Do you want to reject the new law that removes religious and philosophical exemptions to requiring immunization against certain communicable diseases for students to attend schools and colleges and for employees of nursery schools and health care facilities?

If you vote "yes," that means you want to repeal the law and allow children who are not vaccinated for religious or philosophical reasons to attend public schools.

If you vote "no," you want to keep the law in place, requiring children be vaccinated regardless of religious or philosophical reasons in order to attend public schools.

It's a very heated debate among Mainers. Some that want to keep the law intact claim that it's necessary to keep other children in schools safe from communicable diseases. Some who want the law repealed claim that forcing vaccinations is government over reach and was pushed through by "Big Pharma," a term used to refer to the pharmaceutical industry.

Now the power is in the hands of the people, so to make your voice heard, be sure you get out and vote on March 3.