AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine Republicans on Friday mounted the latest legal challenge against a new ranked voting method set for the June primary.
The lawsuit targeting ranked-choice voting in federal court presented another 11th-hour legal challenge to the voting system.
The lawsuit is against Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap and asks a federal judge to prevent the use of ranked choice voting to decide Republican winners in the June primary. The party argues that requiring ranked-choice voting for Republican candidates violates the party’s First Amendment rights.
“Because parties are collections of individuals, parties have rights,” said lawyer Josh Dunlap, who is representing the GOP. He is no relation to the secretary of state.
Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates on the ballot in order of preference. A candidate with a majority of votes wins. If there is no majority, then the last-place candidate’s votes are reallocated and the votes are tabulated again.
The GOP wants the winner to simply have the most votes, or what’s known as a “plurality.” The lawsuit seeks to halt vote tabulation after the first round.
The Maine Senate already asked state courts to intervene because of constitutional questions. But the Maine Supreme Judicial Court allowed the voting system to remain in place for the primaries.
The GOP’s late timing was unavoidable, party officials said. The GOP had to wait until Friday, when the state’s GOP convention voted against allowing ranked-choice voting in Republican primaries, they said.
The Maine secretary of state’s office is proceeding with implementing the new voting system, and the deadline for changing the ballot has passed, said Kristen Muszynski, spokeswoman for the office.
Ranked-choice voting has had a difficult path in Maine.
State lawmakers delayed implementation after voters approved the new system in November 2016. Supporters then collected enough signatures to temporarily halt the delay pending a second statewide vote on June 12.
The Supreme Judicial Court issued an advisory opinion last year that it is likely unconstitutional for general elections for governor and state legislators because of state constitutional conflicts.
Because of that nonbinding decision, the ranked-choice voting system was scaled back for use in primary elections and federal general elections.
Secretary of State Matt Dunlap declined comment on the GOP’s lawsuit.
Kyle Bailey from the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting called the GOP’s lawsuit a last-ditch political stunt aimed at undermining the system after the ballots have been printed.
He said the Maine GOP is bound by state law governing primaries unless it wants to pay to run its own election. “When there’s a handful of activists who want to pick up the tab for their winner they can pick the winner however they want to,” Bailey said.
Maine GOP Chair Demi Kouzounas said that the cost of ranked-choice voting was pushed onto Maine voters by outside groups. Bailey said grassroots support has championed the ranked-choice voting effort, which has also received donations from out-of-state nonprofits.
“The change is coming from these outside groups, not Mainers,” Kouzounas said.
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