Was there ever any doubt?

As soon as the Santa Claus Fund made known its need for a new “North Pole Annex” this year, the Mid-coast community responded with a wave of generosity more likely to appear in a Rankin- Bass holiday fantasy than a tale of collaboration between small-town businesses and a local charity.

Dave Desjardins, who chairs the Santa Claus Fund, received calls from a host of local business representatives after they learned that the organization, which has provided holiday gifts to local children whose families are struggling since 1967, could not operate from the Brunswick Golf Club this year.

During a recession as deep as this — exacerbated by the Navy’s departure from the region this year — that response launches the 2011 holiday season in a most heartwarming manner.

Eventually, Access Self Storage (Access Elf Storage for a month?) in Topsham proved to be the best fit for the Santa Claus Fund. With the question about a new base of operations answered, members of the Bath and Brunswick Elks lodges, and other Santa Claus Fund volunteers, can gear up for this year’s effort, which promises to be daunting, given the tough economic circumstances.

This act of good will by Access Self Storage — and offers from others in the community — demonstrates that hard times won’t stifle this community’s giving nature. We hope that spirit carries through later this month, when it comes time to support the Santa Claus Fund.

Fox guarding the henhouse

The best way to ensure the integrity of Maine’s election system depends upon lying to voters. That’s the implicit message conveyed by Secure Maine’s Ballot, a group buying ads to defeat Question 1 on Tuesday’s state ballot, the people’s veto of a law that would ban Election Day voter registration.

At best, the ads blur the issue. For example, the narrator of an ad launched last week by Secure Maine’s Ballot asks, “Who should decide Maine’s elections, Mainers or outsiders from other states? Today, outside interests are trying to get rid of Maine’s ethics law. Keep Maine s elections fair.”

So few words; so much falsehood.

First, Question 1 results from a people’s veto petition signed by more than 60,000 Mainers — not outsiders.

Second, Question 1 has nothing to do with Maine’s ethics law. It proposes to overturn a portion of a new state law that addresses voter registration practices, not ethics. Framing it otherwise is unethical.

Third, given that the Maine Ethics Commission last week fined Secure Maine’s Ballot for late campaign finance reporting and the group’s decision not to reveal how much of its funding comes from out of state, the campaign’s self-designation as guardian of election fairness comes off as disingenuous, if not downright dishonest.

If Mainers truly want to protect the integrity of our elections, we should vote “yes” on Question 1, and in so doing show that we won’t be taken in by unscrupulous political manipulation.

Trust the voters, not the ads.