GLOGood Lookin’ Out

Maine regulations: details

Copied from the Maine Secretary of State’s Word files on October 11, 2026. Check the official page before you rely on a rule.

What is here

Release 5: 1,924 rule units of the Code of Maine Rules, from 1,868 Word files of 143 agencies, converted by us from the Word files the Maine Secretary of State posts on its agency rules pages, copied October 11, 2026. A unit is a whole chapter, one chapter of a file that holds several, or a named part of a chapter.
The files hold 2,294 units. 370 of them are held and not shown yet, because we have not confirmed their text matches the official file: pictures with words in them, footnotes, tables, symbols, history lines, numbering, and other reasons each named on the held unit. A held chapter comes back as held, with its reasons and no text. Held is not absent: the chapter is in the Secretary of State’s files.
Maine ships in releases. Release 1 (October 12, 2026) showed 1,756 units; Release 2 (the same day) added 112 that later checks cleared; Release 3 (the same day) added 26 more; Release 4 (October 14, 2026) added 15; Release 5 (the same day) added 15 more. Later releases add held units once each is checked; nothing held is shown before then.
It is not the official text. The Secretary of State says chapters downloaded from its site should not be considered official state rules for use before a court; certified copies come from its APA Office. This copy is not official either.
Look a chapter up by its number, as in 18-125 Ch. 110, 18-125 C.M.R. ch. 110 or CMR 18-125-110. It comes back whole, and a long one comes back in pages; nothing is cut. An agency number such as 18-125 lists its chapters, shown and held.
Lines that begin [GLO: are our notes on the text beside them. They are not the rule’s words.

How we checked it

Two converters read the files: one for the newer Word format and one for the older. Every unit shown here is text those converters produced, and a check run on the whole release confirmed by fingerprint that the stored text is exactly what they produced, with no empty or damaged text.
Before release, a person read 60 units drawn at random against the pages Word prints from the files. In 25 of the 30 older-format units and 23 of the 30 newer-format units the text agreed with the page. Each kind of difference found was then counted across all the files and either fixed, stated in a note on the unit, or held. No new sample was drawn after those fixes.
The 112 units Release 2 added were each compared whole with the pages Word prints from the files; most pages were compared by software helpers, and a person checked each difference they named.
Of the 26 units Release 3 added, 2 were read against the printed page. In the other 24, the date lines that end a rule (such as “ADOPTED:” and its date) had been given as rule text; a fixed rule moved them to the history lines, and a check confirmed that no word was added or lost.
The 15 units Release 4 added are chapters whose files print their chapter number and title but not their department and agency number. Each was given the agency number that every shown chapter from the same agency page and file number carries, and only where the file’s name and the agency page’s link name the same chapter. A person read all 15 as converted, not against the printed page.
The 15 units Release 5 added are chapters with footnotes. Each footnote mark is shown as [1], [2] and so on where the file places it, numbered as Word numbers it, and the footnotes follow the text under a line of hyphens. A check confirmed that, without the marks and footnotes, each text is exactly what the converter produced. A person read all of them as converted, not against the printed page, and held one more chapter after that read.
That check compares our text with the Word files, not with certified copies.
Every comparison, read and ruling was made by one person, with no second reader.

What it can't tell you

Whether a rule is in force or valid.
Whether anything changed after we copied the files on October 11, 2026.
Whether it agrees with the certified text from the APA Office.
Whether a unit agrees with the printed page, beyond the units read against it and the kinds of difference counted.

Known gaps

370 units are held and not shown yet. Some chapters had parts held while other parts are shown; those chapters say “Other parts of this chapter are not shown yet.”
In up to 19 shown units, lines that end a rule (such as “ADOPTED:” and its date) still appear at the end of the rule text instead of with the history lines. No words are missing; a later release will move them.
Pictures, seals and drawn lines are not shown; 204 units say so. Four units whose figure illustrates the text say so too.
Tables are given after the text, one row per line, not in their place; 180 units say so.
Bullet marks and checkboxes are not shown; each bulleted item is its own paragraph. Footnotes, margin notes and words inside pictures are not shown where a unit says so.
Keyword search reads only the shown units. Held units have no text here and never match.

Notes you may see on an entry

204 units with a picture, seal or drawn line: “The official file has a picture, seal or drawn line here that GLO does not show.”
4 units whose figure illustrates the text: “The official file has a figure that illustrates this text; GLO does not show the figure.”
180 units with tables: “The official file prints tables within the text; GLO gives each table after the text, one row per line.”
20 units with footnotes: “The official file prints these notes at the foot of their pages; GLO gives them after the text, numbered as printed.”
20 shown parts of a chapter with held parts: “Other parts of this chapter are not shown yet.”
99 units whose history is printed earlier: “The official file prints the history before the material GLO gives at the end of the text.”
A held chapter: “GLO holds this chapter (or these parts) and does not show its text yet, because it has not confirmed the text matches the official file. Its reasons are listed by name.”
A chapter not in this copy: “Not in this copy of the Code of Maine Rules, neither shown nor held. That never means the chapter does not exist.”

Nothing here is legal advice or a judgment that a rule is in force. Full counts for software: the defect_floor field on every Maine result (source=me).