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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - An initiative aimed at taxing spring water — a first-in-the-nation proposal that rankled Maine bottler Poland Spring — fell short Monday of attracting enough valid signatures to be placed on the ballot.
Petitions calling for a statewide vote next November contained 49,100 valid signatures, but organizers needed at least 50,519 to guarantee a statewide vote by then.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap ruled Monday that about 7,100 of the 56,287 signatures that had been submitted were invalid, mostly because the signers were not registered to vote in the municipalities where their signatures were collected.
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