Maurice T. Cunningham, J.D., Ph.D., of Damariscotta, is the author of *Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization*.

In 2024, more than 370,000 Mainers—many of them elderly or disabled—voted by absentee ballot. Referendum Question 1 threatens to strip many of these voters of the freedom to have their votes counted fairly.

Concealed behind layers of dark money fronts funding Question 1 are far-right billionaires and Christian nationalists who fueled the rise of President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Tracking and following dark money can feel like a medieval archaeological dig.

More than 90% of the funds raised to support Question 1—over half a million dollars—comes from a Washington, D.C.-based dark money operation called the RSLC PAC. This PAC is solely funded by the Republican State Leadership Committee, a group that depends on cash infusions from entities controlled by Catholic activist Leonard Leo.

In 2024, the committee has received $650,000 from a dark money front called The Lexington Fund and $100,000 from the First Principles PAC, which is also underwritten by the Lexington Fund. Both are operated by Leo. Going back to 2022, you’ll find $1.5 million from The Concord Fund, another entity controlled by Leo.

An additional $10,000 funding Question 1 comes from the For Our Future PAC. The principal officer of both the Question 1 committee and For Our Future is Alex Titcomb, who also serves as the principal officer of Dinner Table Action PAC. Notably, the For Our Future PAC is the largest contributor to Dinner Table Action PAC, giving $100,000. The For Our Future PAC depends on Leo’s Concord Fund for nearly all its funding.

Much of the money Leo deploys can be traced to the Marble Freedom Trust. In 2020, billionaire Barre Seid contributed $1.6 billion to Marble to enable Leo to expand his influence over American politics. President Trump assigned Leo the task of placing right-wing jurists Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett on the Roberts Court. Leo has reportedly been a “matchmaker” between radical billionaires and justices Thomas, Alito, and Roberts.

The Roberts Court has delivered elections to billionaires through the Citizens United line of cases. It gutted the Voting Rights Act and removed the courts’ role in protecting voters from unfair redistricting schemes. The RSLC PAC pioneered partisan redistricting efforts. Recently, Trump influenced the Texas state government to undertake a rare mid-decade redistricting to secure more congressional seats for MAGA.

The Trump administration has sued Maine to obtain voters’ personal information. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “there is a concerted White House effort to interfere in future elections.” One aspect of this effort includes Trump’s executive order attempting to prevent states from counting absentee ballots—even in states, like Maine, where state law explicitly allows them to be counted. It is important to note that the president does not have this power.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson writes that Trump’s 2021 election-denying lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, has stated that Trump could proclaim “a threat to the national sovereignty of the United States” to assert “emergency powers to protect the federal elections going forward,” effectively seizing authority over elections from the states, which constitutionally exercise such powers.

In 2021, Trump instigated a violent insurrection to overturn the results of a free and fair election he lost. A study by Leo’s ally, the Heritage Foundation, found that from 1982 to 2025, there were only two cases of voting irregularities in Maine—both in 2010—and neither involved absentee ballots.

Question 1 is a test of whether Mainers will surrender their freedom to have their votes counted fairly to MAGA and far-right billionaires.

Vote “No” on Question 1—in person or by absentee ballot.
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/10/17/dark-money-clouds-circle-maines-voter-id-question-opinion/