Maine Treats an Obscured Plate as a Class E Crime, Not a Traffic Ticket

The Maine rule is a legibility rule with a criminal penalty attached, which is an unusual combination. Nothing in Title 29-A prohibits a cover, a shield or a frame as an object. A full-text search of the Revised Statutes for "plate cover" returns only unrelated sections on the Specialty License Plate Fund and dealer licensing, and searches for "obscure" and "reflectorized" return nothing about license plate glazing. The question Maine actually asks is narrower and easier to fail: is any part of the plate obscured?

Section 2104(2) states that a person commits a Class E crime if that person obscures identification numbers, identification letters, the state name, validation sticker or mark distinguishing the type of plate attached to a vehicle. That list is worth reading item by item. The word MAINE is protected, so is the validation sticker, and so is the mark distinguishing the type of plate, which is what makes a smoked cover over a lobster, veteran or conservation plate reach the statute even when every digit is still readable. Section 2104(5) then declares violation of subsections 1, 2 and 3 a strict liability crime as defined in 17-A M.R.S. § 34(4-A), which removes the culpable state of mind element. Telling an officer that the frame came with the car does not answer the charge.

Decorative frames are handled by a different subsection with a lighter penalty. Section 2104(4) says that, except when a greater penalty is applicable, a person commits a traffic infraction if that person adds or attaches to a registration plate a decal, symbol, slogan, mark, letter or number not authorized by law or by the Secretary of State. A dealer frame carrying a dealership name, a novelty slogan plate screwed over the real one, or a stick-on decal on the plate face is covered by that sentence. The "greater penalty is applicable" clause is what routes the same conduct up to the Class E crime in subsection 2 when the addition also obscures something.

The display duties sit in section 452. Subsection 1 requires a plate to be displayed horizontally, permits only one set of Maine plates on a vehicle, and requires a plate on both the front and the rear, with four exceptions: trailer and semitrailer plates go on the rear only, a motorcycle plate may not be attached to the front, manufacturer, dealer and transporter plates go on the rear only, and a truck tractor plate goes on the front only. Subsection 3 requires plates to be properly displayed at all times, and subsection 4, added by PL 2003, c. 452, requires that registration plates, including the numbers, letters and words, always be plainly visible and legible. That is the sentence a tinted cover runs into first.

Night-time legibility is a separate requirement. Section 1909 requires a vehicle to have a white light capable of illuminating the rear registration plate so that the characters on the plate are visible for a distance of at least 50 feet, with exceptions only for unregistered farm tractors and vehicles carrying valid temporary plates issued by a licensed dealer. A cover that dims the plate at night can therefore breach section 1909 as well as section 452.

Maine also checks plates at the annual safety inspection, which many states do not. Section 1751(2) lists the equipment the statute makes subject to inspection and registration plates are not on that list, but Section 170 of the Maine Motor Vehicle Inspection Manual, the Chief of the State Police rule stations work from, has its own heading H, Registration Plates: the technician rejects the vehicle if it does not have a plate attached to the front and the rear that are clearly visible and legible, and rejects it if all plates are not displayed horizontally. A vehicle missing an original plate may still be inspected if it displays a temporary plate bearing the registration number in as nearly as possible the original position and the owner has a Bureau of Motor Vehicles receipt showing a replacement was ordered. The rear-lamp standards in the same section reject a vehicle whose plate light bulbs do not produce sufficient steady white light to illuminate the entire rear plate visible from 50 feet or more, and reject any after-market lighting device installed around or near the plate that is of a color or function contrary to law. The rule is broader than the statutory equipment list, so treat the inspection standard as the operative test.

The consequences split by subsection. § 1704(5) sets the maximum fine for a Class E crime at $1,000. Because § 2104(5) makes it a strict liability crime, the State does not have to prove intent, knowledge or recklessness. Attaching a plate assigned to another vehicle under § 2104(1) and permitting that attachment under § 2104(1-A) are also Class E crimes, and manufacturing or reproducing plates without the Secretary of State's consent under § 2104(3) is a Class D crime. § 103(3) carries a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $500, or license suspension, or both, and is proved by a preponderance of the evidence under § 103(4).

Enforcement is roadside and at the annual inspection: a station applying Section 170 of the Maine Motor Vehicle Inspection Manual refuses the sticker for a plate that is not clearly visible and legible or not displayed horizontally, and no citation is needed for that outcome.