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# Maine Voters Send a Clear Message: They Want Foreign Money Out of Elections
- URL: https://ivn.us/maine-voters-send-clear-message-they-want-foreign-money-out-elections/
- Published: 2023-11-08T02:52:45.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-19T00:24:04.000Z
- Author: Shawn Griffiths
- Tags: Election Reform, Campaign Finance

Maine voters [overwhelmingly approved Question 2](https://www.pressherald.com/2023/11/07/2023-live-statewide-and-local-election-results/?ref=ivn.us) on Tuesday, a ballot measure that prohibits direct and indirect electioneering from foreign governments and foreign government-owned entities in candidate and ballot measure elections.

With 45% of precincts reporting in, 86% of voters said 'Yes' to [Question 2](https://ballotpedia.org/Maine%5FQuestion%5F2,%5FProhibit%5FForeign%5FSpending%5Fin%5FElections%5FInitiative%5F%282023%29?ref=ivn.us).

Federal prohibitions on foreign spending in elections already applied to candidate races. However, there is a loophole on the subject of ballot referendums, and in the past few years over $100 million in federal spending went into ballot measure elections in Maine.

“In this cycle, 83% of the spending has been by foreign government-owned entities," said Kaitlin LaCasse of [Protect Maine Elections](https://www.protectmaineelections.com/?ref=ivn.us) in a [previous interview for IVN](https://ivn.us/posts/maine-question-2-seeks-end-foreign-interference-state-elections). Protect Maine Elections spearheaded the effort to pass Question 2.

Maine is the 8th state to ban foreign nationals from making contributions to ballot measure campaigns. The other 7 are California, Colorado, Maryland, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington.