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| Senator Bill Diamond of Windham has introduced a bill to strengthen the standards used by the Maine Secretary of State's office in issuing vanity license plates and to reject applications for those that are vulgar, contain hate speech or include language that refer to drugs. FILE PHOTO |
Diamond’s bill will
allow the Secretary of State to reject applications for plates that are vulgar,
contain hate speech or that include language referring to drugs.
“As a former Maine Secretary of State, I know that these additional standards are badly needed,” Diamond said. “Some of the plates I see when I’m out on the road today provide strong evidence that the Legislature must create more thorough guidance.”
He served as Maine’s Secretary of State
from 1989 to 1997, during which time Maine’s vanity plate program was first
implemented. Maine law currently prohibits plates that encourage violence, may
result in an act of violence or spur other unlawful activities.
In 2015, Maine repealed restrictions on license plates that could be considered obscene, contemptuous, profane or prejudicial, or which promoted abusive or unlawful activity.
“As the Secretary of
State who began the vanity plate program, I never imagined that plates would be
used to make such vulgar statements as the ones we’re seeing today,” Diamond said.
“Vanity plates are a fun part of driving in Maine, and have even become
a tradition here, but we need to have some limitations when it comes to making
public statements on state property (vanity plates) if for no other reason than
to demonstrate to our youth that with life comes certain boundaries. Setting
some clear standards will make sure everyone is on the same page about what is
and is not appropriate for our roadways.”
The bill will now
undergo further work in committee.
The 130th
Maine Legislature will be sworn in on Dec. 2. <
