MAINE, Maine — As the final voters head to the polls to cast their votes Tuesday, the Yes on 1 campaign, which opposes the Central Maine Power corridor, held a gathering for volunteers just a few miles from the corridor.
The Farmhouse Beer Garden in Farmington has served as the campaign's volunteer headquarters.
Sandi Howard, director of No CMP Corridor, said there are three key reasons why Mainers voted 'Yes on 1' on Tuesday: environmental concerns, lack of trust in those building the corridor, and foreign influence.
"People in Maine felt passionately about protecting its natural resources like western Maine, which is the longest continuous forest northeast of the Mississippi," Howard said. "People don’t trust CMP, and also Mainers don’t want foreign corporations to make billions of dollars of profit while they get pennies."
On Monday, the No on 1 campaign, which supports the CMP corridor, held its final campaign event. Many of the corridor's workers attended the event, which focused on jobs.
Ben Dudley, director of Mainers for Clean Energy Jobs, a PAC that supports No on 1, also gave three reasons voters would vote on No on Question 1: economic benefits, also environmental concerns, and corporate influence in the other campaign.
"There are three reasons," Dudley said. "It's an enormous economic benefit to the state for this billion-dollar investment in public infrastructure, paid for with not a penny of state income or state taxes or rate increases. The positive effect of reducing climate emissions. And also the fact that the people behind question one, the yes side, is almost entirely funded by three of the worst carbon polluters in the United States."
Question 1 would bad the controversial CMP corridor, which stretches from Canada to Lewiston. While most of it would run along existing transmission lines, approximately 53 miles would be a fresh cut through Maine's woods.
Question 1 is the most expensive ballot initiative in state history. Nearly $100 million has been spent on the campaigns.