Posted by
FEDUPWITHTAXES on Thursday, November 06, 2008 6:52:51 AM
By Jim Kanak
jkanak@seacoastonline.com
Voters
in Maine overwhelmingly approved the People's Veto on Tuesday, and
rejected a new tax on beverages to support the Dirigo Health Plan.
Question
1 on the ballot won by a vote of 389,479 to 220,193, according to the
Bangor Daily News, with 87 percent of all precincts reporting.
"We
never took this for granted," said Ted O'Meara of Fed Up with Taxes,
the group that led the citizens' initiative to repeal the tax. "Ballot
questions can be challenging and volatile. We were hoping for a very
convincing showing and we got one."
O'Meara said the signs of the landslide win were evident early on.
"It
started to form with only five to 10 percent of the votes in," he said.
"Once we got to the 60 to 40 percent range it held there. That leads me
to believe that we ran very strong across the state."
In fact, the final percentage difference was 64 to 36 percent of the votes in favor of the question.
An
attempt to reach Gordon Smith of the group No on One, which sought to
defeat the question, thereby maintaining the tax, was unsuccessful.
Voters faced two other questions on the state ballot.
Once again, a proposed casino, this one in Oxford County, was defeated by a 343,790 to 282,307 count.
Finally,
a bond issue to support public water system infrastructure projects led
by 301,070 to 292,946, only a one percent difference, again with 87
percent of precincts reporting, according to the Bangor Daily News.