Three Branches & the Governor
Name Maine’s three branches of government.
What are the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches?
This word means a legislature has two chambers.
What is bicameral?
This is Maine’s highest court.
What is the Maine Supreme Judicial Court?
This process lets citizens gather required signatures to propose a new law or change to a law for voters to consider.
What is a citizen initiative?
Name one way Maine and the federal government are similar.
What is that both have three branches, bicameral legislatures, checks and balances, written constitutional structures, or systems for making, enforcing, and interpreting laws?
This branch carries out and enforces laws; its leader in Maine is the Governor.
What is the Executive Branch?
Name the two chambers of the Maine Legislature.
What are the House of Representatives and the Senate?
This is the number of justices on Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court.
What is seven?
This process lets citizens gather required signatures to challenge and seek to repeal a recently passed law.
What is a people’s veto?
Name one way Maine and the federal government differ.
What is that Maine has no lieutenant governor, uses citizen initiatives and people’s vetoes, has different chamber sizes, or has four-consecutive-term limits for Maine legislators while federal legislators have no such limits?
Daily Double — Name three powers held by the Governor.
What are appointing department heads or other officials, vetoing bills, granting pardons, granting reprieves, and granting commutations? Any three.
How many members are in each chamber, and about how many citizens does each member represent?
What are 151 House members and 35 Senators, with each House member representing about 9,000 citizens and each Senator about 38,000?
List Maine’s court levels from the Supreme Judicial Court down to Probate Courts.
What are the Supreme Judicial Court, Superior Court, District Court, and Probate Courts?
Explain one difference between an initiative and a people’s veto.
What is that an initiative proposes a new law or change to a law, while a people’s veto seeks to reject or cancel a recently passed law?
How is executive succession different in Maine and the federal government?
What is that the President of the Maine Senate is first in line after Maine’s Governor, while the Vice President is first in line after the federal President?
Maine has no lieutenant governor. Who is first in line of succession if the Governor cannot serve, and why is this unusual?
Who is the President of the Maine Senate? Unlike many states, Maine has no lieutenant governor, so the Senate President is first in line.
Put the bill-process steps in order, then name the Governor’s two choices after a bill passes both chambers.
What are First Reading, Second Reading, Engrossment, and Enactment; then the Governor may sign or approve the bill, or veto it?
Describe how most Maine judges are selected and how long they serve.
What is appointment by the Governor with legislative confirmation, followed by a 7-year term?
Give an example of an issue voters might decide through a citizen initiative or a people’s veto.
What is whether to approve a proposed law created through an initiative, or whether to reject a recently passed law through a people’s veto?
How are Maine’s direct-democracy tools different from the federal government’s lawmaking system?
What is that Maine citizens can use initiatives and people’s vetoes to propose or challenge laws directly, while the federal system has no same nationwide process and makes federal laws through Congress and the President’s action?
The Governor vetoes a bill. What action by the Legislature can check that power?
What is overriding the veto if both chambers reach their required two-thirds vote: 101 votes in the House and 24 votes in the Senate?
A vetoed bill receives 102 votes in the House and 23 votes in the Senate. Is the veto overridden? Explain.
What is no? The Senate has 23 votes but needs 24; both chambers must meet their required thresholds.
Describe how probate judges are selected and how long they serve.
What is election by county voters for a 4-year term?
Daily Double — Citizens gather signatures to challenge and seek to repeal a recently passed law. What process is this, and how does it differ from an initiative?
What is a people’s veto? It challenges a recently passed law, while an initiative proposes a new law or a change to a law.
Compare the size of Maine’s Legislature with Congress, including the size of each chamber.
What is that Maine has a 151-member House and 35-member Senate, while the federal government has a 435-member House and 100-member Senate?