The Maine Supreme Court is slated to weigh in on a bill that would expand ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the state to include state lawmaker and gubernatorial races — legislation Maine’s Democrat attorney general says violates the Pine Tree State’s constitution.
As the Federalist has previously reported, in RCV elections, voters “rank” a certain number of candidates according to preference. If no candidate secures a majority of “first-choice votes in the first round of voting,” the nominee who comes in last place is eliminated, and his votes go toward whichever candidate the voter ranked second. The cycle continues until a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote. Maine already employs RCV in primary elections as well as general elections for federal office. The bill in question — LD 1666 — would expand the method to Maine’s general and special elections for governor, state representative, and state senator.
