Maine lawmakers push to expand ranked choice voting to governor's race

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Jun. 11—AUGUSTA — Lawmakers advanced a bill this week to allow ranked choice voting to be used in statewide elections, including for governor.
If enacted, the bill may set up a confrontation in court. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued a 2017 advisory opinion that using ranked choice voting for state-level offices conflicted with the state Constitution, which says such offices are determined by who gets the most votes.
Currently, ranked choice voting is used in Maine for federal offices and in gubernatorial and state-level primary elections. Some cities, such as Portland and Westbrook, also use ranked choice voting for local elections.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Round Pond, cleared both chambers this week in mostly party-line votes, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. It narrowly passed in an initial 72-70 vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday with seven people absent and it cleared the Senate 20-14 without debate on Tuesday.
The bill faces additional votes in each chamber before it can be sent to Gov. Janet Mills, whose aides did not respond to questions about the proposal.
Opponents argued that the bill would conflict with the Maine Law Courts' advisory opinion and would expand a system that is confusing to some voters.
But proponents said a case decided by the Alaska Supreme Court dismantled Maine's advisory opinion and upheld the constitutionality of the system.
Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, said Maine's Constitution is clear that state offices must be decided based on a plurality, meaning that whoever gets the most votes is the winner even if they don't win an outright majority of votes. He accused ranked choice voting supporters to doing an end-run around the Maine Law Court, rather than seeking an updated opinion in light of the ruling in Alaska, which has a similar constitutional provision for state offices.
"Instead of going back to (the court) today in 2025, we are instead going to redefine what the word 'plurality' means so that we can pretend like it's constitutional," Boyer said. "I know it's a prickly issue, and facts are a stubborn thing, but if we did pass this, it would be unconstitutional, and we should have reached out to the Maine Supreme Court, rather than trying to do this end-run around."
But Rep. Adam Lee, D-Auburn, said Maine's advisory opinion was dismissed by Alaska's court. He said Maine's court ruling hinged on the idea that a candidate must win in the first round, while Alaska's court ruled that the vote is not completed until the final round.
"The Alaska Supreme Court compellingly took apart the Law Court's opinion and demonstrated the flaw of its reasoning," said Lee, who is an attorney. "This legislative change would align us with how the Federal Elections Commission and other federal courts and the Alaska Supreme Court have come to understand ranked choice voting — not as multiple votes but as a single iterative process."
Maine became the first state in the nation to adopt ranked choice voting in 2016, after it was approved through a citizen's initiative and has withstood subsequent efforts by Republicans to repeal it.
The process allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. The candidate with the least number of votes in each round is eliminated. Ballots listing an eliminated candidate as their top choice then have their second choice adding to the remaining candidates. That process continues until a candidate surpasses 50% of the vote.
The push for ranked choice vote came largely as a response to the 2010 governor's race, in which longshot Republican candidate Paul LePage took office with just under 38% of the vote, after the Democratic candidate and a third party challenger split the opposition. LePage won reelection in 2014 in another three-way without receiving more than 50%.
An advisory opinion from the Maine Law Court in 2017 said the voting method could not be used to elect a governor, state senator or state representative, because the constitution says those offices are to be elected by plurality. The court ruled the method could be used in other elections, including federal races and state-level primaries.
LD 1666 would extend ranked choice voting to gubernatorial and legislative races by clarifying the definition of ranked choice voting by changing several references to "votes" to "ballots" and adds that the final round "of tabulation is determined to have received a plurality of the votes cast."
"It refines the statutory language that each ranking is not a separate vote, but rather a single expressive vote, counted through successive rounds, until one candidate earns a plurality," Lee said.
"Let's follow the reasoned path laid out by the Alaska court and the will of our constituents and move forward with a voting system that reflects both legal soundness and democratic values."
Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, joined Senate Democrats in supporting the bill, while Democratic Reps. Ed Crockett of Portland and James Dill of Old Town joined House Republicans in opposing it.
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