(The Center Square) — Maine’s Attorney General Aaron Frey is breaking with other Democrats in opposing a proposed expansion of ranked choice voting in state elections, calling on the state’s highest court to reject the “unconstitutional” plan.
Democratic lawmakers who control the state House of Representatives and the Senate have asked the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to rule on the legality of recently approved legislation that allows ranked-choice voting in gubernatorial and legislative elections.
But Frey is asking the high court to reject the proposal, arguing in a new court filing that ranked-choice voting likely violates a provision of the Maine Constitution that requires winners of gubernatorial and legislative contests to be determined by a plurality of voters.
He said the proposal seeks to address unconstitutional issues with the proposed law, but said it “changes the terminology used to describe the process without changing how the process works” and because of that, “cannot make the unconstitutional constitutional.”
“To hold otherwise would effectively cede to the Legislature the judicial branch’s responsibility to determine the meaning of constitutional provisions,” Frey wrote in the 32-page legal brief.
Maine is one of only two states, including Alaska, that use the system in statewide elections. At least 19 states, most controlled by Republicans, have outlawed it.
Maine’s system, approved by voters in 2016, was used in the 2020 presidential election and several congressional races; it has survived repeal efforts and legal challenges. A 2017 Supreme Court advisory opinion limited ranked-choice voting to congressional contests and party primaries, but Democrats have been pushing to expand the system.
Unlike the winner-take-all voting system, ranked choice requires voters to list candidates in order of preference. The system comes into play in crowded races when no candidate gets 50% of the votes. When that happens, the candidate who got the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes are reallocated and re-tabulated until someone wins a majority.
Supporters of ranked choice say it ensures winning candidates have broad support and gives voters more options. Critics say ranked choice voting is too confusing and unconstitutional.
The Maine Republican Party unsuccessfully sued to stop the state from using ranked choice in the 2020 election. The suit was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Earlier this week, the Republican National Committee announced that it was partnering with the state GOP on a new campaign to oppose expanding the system to statewide elections, accusing Democrats of trying to change state election laws before the midterm elections.
“Maine’s highest court and the State’s Democrat Governor Janet Mills both previously said that expanding ranked-choice voting would violate the State’s constitution, yet Democrats in the state legislature are still trying to force this through,” Republican Party Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement.
