Sec. 1. 21-A MRSA §901-A is enacted to read:

§901-A.__Petition requirements for direct initiatives of

legislation

The following provisions apply to direct initiatives of legislation under the Constitution of Maine, Article IV, Part Third, Section 18.

1.__Proposed ballot question summary. The Secretary of State in conjunction with the Revisor of Statutes shall draft a proposed ballot question summary that is neutral and accurately summarizes the proposed law in a concise manner similar in form to legislative bill summaries.__The Secretary of State shall provide the summary to the applicant when the approved form of the petition is provided to the applicant and make the summary easily accessible to the public by way of a publicly accessible site on the Internet.

2. Freedom of citizen information.__ The proposed ballot question summary must include the following statement completed and prominently displayed at the beginning of the summary:

"PROPOSED BALLOT QUESTION SUMMARY

Ballot questions during the 20.. election [most recent election cycle] cost taxpayers approximately $........ [an estimate shall be provided by the Office of Fiscal and Program Review] each to be placed on the ballot.__As a citizen of Maine, you have a right to decide whether placing a question on the ballot is sensible or not.__Registered voters must be offered the opportunity to read a proposed ballot question summary as drafted by the Secretary of State before signing any petition.__You, the registered voter, may choose not to read the summary and still sign the petition."

A person circulating a petition must provide the voter with the proposed ballot question summary to read and keep prior to that voter signing the petition.__ The summary presented to the voter must be as it appears on the publicly accessible site on the Internet established by the Secretary of State pursuant to subsection 1.

3.__Form of petition. When determining the form of the petition to be submitted to voters as provided under section 901, the Secretary of State shall design the petition to meet the following requirements.