Maine Senate approves repeal of ranked-choice voting

The Maine State Senate has approved a repeal of the ranked-choice voting law passed by voters last November.

The Senate voted 21 to 13 to repeal the law that voters passed as a ballot initiative in 2016, the Portland Press Herald reported. The law has been a source of controversy since it was passed with the Maine Supreme Court ruling an advisory opinion earlier this year that the measure violated the state’s constitution. The advisory, however, was limited to the gubernatorial and legislative races in the general election.

Republican Gov. Paul LePage has already said he supports repealing the law.

Supporters of the law, primarily Democrats say that for primary and federal elections, the state should uphold the initiative since the court did not specify a conflict with the state’s constitution in those races. Opponents say the measure creates confusion for voters and puts an unnecessary burden on the state.

The ranked-choice voting system puts all the candidates on the ballot and allows voters to rank their choices. The candidate ranked the most first-choice votes wins. If no candidate receives more than half of the vote among first-choices, then voting continues, eliminating those candidates finishing in last place, and votes are recounted until one candidate has a majority.