The Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee today voted to table the bill and are considering replacing it with a resolve directing Maine's secretary of state to propose voter reform legislation next year.

Maine civil libertarians and advocates for the elderly are praising a legislative committee's decision to table a bill that would require voters to present a photo ID at the polls.

Lawmakers on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee today voted to table the bill and are considering replacing it with a resolve directing the secretary of state to propose voter reform legislation next year, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal.

"Thousands of Mainers, and especially older Mainers, don't have access to a photo ID," says John Hennessy of the AARP of Maine in a statement. "These folks have been voting in their communities for decades, but could have been turned away from the voting booth for no good reason."

The move came as Secretary of State Charlie Summers presented a report to the Legislature identifying potential problems in the state's Central Voter Registration System, the paper reports. A recent investigation that Summers conducted suggested that some non-residents had voted in Maine elections.

Shenna Bellows of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine says the secretary of state "already has the authority and the obligation to ensure that elections are administered appropriately. If there are administrative problems, then the Secretary of State should fix them now without any further study."