Maine Question 5, formally An Act to Establish Ranked-Choice Voting,
[https://www1.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming/citizensguide2016.pdf ] is a citizen-initiated referendum question that qualified for the
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
November 8, 2016 statewide ballot. It was approved by a vote of 52% in favor, 48% opposed. It sought to change how most Maine elections will be conducted from a
plurality voting system to a
ranked-choice voting system (RCV, also known as instant runoff voting). It appeared on the ballot along with elections for
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
,
Maine's two U.S. House seats, the legislature,
five other ballot questions, and various local elections. The referendum was successful, making Maine the first state to use ranked choice voting for its federal elections.
An
advisory opinion
An advisory opinion is an opinion issued by a court or a commission like an election commission that does not have the effect of adjudicating a specific legal case, but merely advises on the constitutionality or interpretation of a law. Some cou ...
by the
Maine Supreme Judicial Court
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the state of Maine's judicial system. It is composed of seven justices, who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. From 1820 until 1839, justices served lifetime a ...
, issued on May 23, 2017, stated that the court would rule ranked-choice voting unconstitutional if it came before them, with respect to elections for state offices. This led the
Maine Legislature
The Maine Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. The Legislature convenes at the State House in Augus ...
to vote to delay its implementation until 2021 to allow time for a Constitutional amendment to be passed to permit it. Supporters gathered signatures to force a successful
people's veto referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
on the matter in order to prevent the delay.
Background
In the eleven Maine gubernatorial elections prior to 2016, only two candidates (incumbent governors
Joe Brennan in
1982 and
Angus King in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
) won more than 50% of the vote. Typically gubernatorial elections have more than two significant candidates; the
2010 election had five candidates, with
Paul LePage
Paul Richard LePage (; born October 9, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 74th Governor of Maine from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, LePage served two terms as a city councilor in Waterville, Maine, before being ...
emerging as the winner with 37.6% of the vote. Some public opinion felt that his victory was due to opponents of LePage dividing their votes between Democratic candidate
Libby Mitchell
Elizabeth H. Mitchell (born Elizabeth Anne Harrill on June 22, 1940) is an American politician from Maine. Mitchell, a Democrat, represented part of Kennebec County in the Maine Senate from 2004 to 2010. Mitchell was also the Democrats' 2010 ...
and independent candidate
Eliot Cutler
Eliot Cutler (born July 29, 1946) is a former American lawyer who was an Independent candidate in Maine's 2010 and 2014 gubernatorial races. In 2010, he placed second in a multi-way race, receiving 208,270 votes, equaling 35.9%, narrowly losing ...
.
Proposals to enact ranked-choice voting have been introduced in the legislature as early as 2003, but were rejected. After a 2010 charter change, the city of
Portland began electing its mayor using ranked-choice voting in
2011. There were new legislative proposals in 2011, though they were rejected as well. In 2014, upon releasing his supporters to vote for someone else in the
2014 election, Eliot Cutler encouraged his supporters to support ranked-choice voting.
Led by former independent
State Senator Dick Woodbury, Ranked Choice Voting collected more than the 61,123 valid signatures necessary to put a proposal to voters, collecting some 40,000 on Election Day 2014. The group collected 75,369 signatures and delivered them to
Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap
Matthew Dunlap (born November 26, 1964) is an American politician from Maine who is the Maine State Auditor.. A Democrat, Dunlap served as Secretary of State of Maine from January 7, 2013, to January 4, 2021, and previously served in that same ...
by October 19, 2015. Dunlap ultimately certified 64,687 signatures by November 18, 2015, which put the proposal on the November 2016 ballot.
Per the Maine Constitution, the proposal went to the legislature in its 2016 session, but it did not act on the measure. On January 20, 2016, the
Maine House of Representatives voted to place the proposal on the ballot without holding a public hearing, over the objections of Republicans, led by Rep. Heather Sirocki, expressing concern about the constitutionality of the proposal.
Secretary of State Dunlap released the final wording of the question on June 23 as it was to appear on the ballot: "Do you want to allow voters to rank their choices of candidates in elections for U.S. Senate, Congress, Governor, State Senate, and State Representative, and to have ballots counted at the state level in multiple rounds in which last-place candidates are eliminated until a candidate wins by majority?"
Constitutionality
Some, including a deputy secretary of state and a state legislator, expressed concern about the constitutionality of the proposal. Deputy Secretary of State Julie Flynn said that the Maine Constitution requires that the governor and state legislators be elected with a plurality of votes and that a system based on ranked-choice voting could be challenged in court. (The state constitution was amended in 1847, 1875, and 1880 to choose winners by
plurality for house, senate, and governor, respectively. Previously, an election with no
majority winner would be decided by multiple election rounds or by the state legislature.)
Flynn also expressed concern that the proposal inserts the secretary of state into the process, while the Constitution states that votes shall be tabulated by municipal officials.
Maine Attorney General The Maine Attorney General is the chief legal advisor and prosecutor of the State of Maine. The constitutional basis of the office is Article IX, Section 11 of the Maine Constitution, and the holder of the position is chosen biennially by the Main ...
Janet Mills
Janet Trafton Mills (born December 30, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 75th governor of Maine since January 2019. She previously served as the Maine Attorney General on two occasions.
A member of the Democratic Pa ...
issued an opinion at the request of
Maine Senate
The Maine Senate is the upper house of the Maine Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. The Senate currently consists of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, though the Maine Constituti ...
President
Michael Thibodeau stating that while the referendum must appear on the ballot, it will likely require amending the Maine Constitution to implement it, in order to satisfy the concerns given by the Secretary of State's office.
She added that the manner in which the proposal addresses how a tie in the voting should be addressed, drawing lots, directly conflicted with Article V of the Maine Constitution, which states that a tie in the vote for governor would be settled by the Maine Legislature meeting in joint session to choose a winner.
The Committee for Ranked Choice Voting Maine dismissed such concerns, noting that a majority vote is always a plurality vote and that such a system has survived legal challenges in several other states. Its website statement also linked to statements by several Maine law professors supporting its arguments.
After the question was approved by voters, the Maine Senate submitted questions to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which issued an advisory opinion on May 23, 2017. They unanimously ruled that ranked-choice voting was unconstitutional in state, but not federal, general elections. In response, the legislature passed a law on November 4, 2017, that amended the ranked-choice voting law to apply only to primary elections for Congress, governor, state senator, and state representative; and for general elections for Congress.
The law survived a legal challenge in federal court by U.S. Representative
Bruce Poliquin
Bruce Lee Poliquin (; born November 1, 1953) is an American businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Maine's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. Poliquin ...
, who lost reelection by ranked choice voting to
Jared Golden
Jared Forrest Golden (born July 25, 1982) is an American politician and a Marine Corps veteran serving as the U.S. representative for Maine's 2nd congressional district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, his district, the largest ...
in
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
.
Campaign
Supporters of the proposal, led by Ranked Choice Voting Maine, contend that it will lead to people voting for the candidate that they support and end strategic voting to vote merely for the candidate that they think will win, and that the ranked choice system will result in a candidate that has some level of support from a majority of voters. They further contend that ranked-choice voting will result in less negative campaigning, as candidates will need to appeal to a broad coalition of voters beyond their base of supporters to gain support as a second or third choice, if needed.
Notable endorsements
Supporters
Opponents
*
Bill Diamond, Democratic state senator, former
Secretary of State of Maine
The secretary of state of Maine is a constitutional officer in the U.S. state of Maine and serves as the head of the Maine Department of State. The Secretary of State performs duties of both a legislative branch as well as an executive branch off ...
*
Paul LePage
Paul Richard LePage (; born October 9, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 74th Governor of Maine from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, LePage served two terms as a city councilor in Waterville, Maine, before being ...
,
Governor of Maine
The governor of Maine is the head of government of the U.S. state of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive.
The current governor of Maine is J ...
*Heather Sirocki, state representative (R-
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
)
*''Ellsworth American''
*''
Bangor Daily News
The ''Bangor Daily News'' is an American newspaper covering a large portion of central and eastern Maine, published six days per week in Bangor, Maine.
The ''Bangor Daily News'' was founded on June 18, 1889; it merged with the ''Bangor Whig and ...
''
Polling
Results
Maine Supreme Court ruling
On February 3, 2017, the
Maine Senate
The Maine Senate is the upper house of the Maine Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. The Senate currently consists of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, though the Maine Constituti ...
voted 24–10 to ask the
Maine Supreme Judicial Court
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the state of Maine's judicial system. It is composed of seven justices, who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. From 1820 until 1839, justices served lifetime a ...
for an advisory opinion as to the constitutionality of the approved proposal, after concerns about its constitutionality were expressed by
Maine Attorney General The Maine Attorney General is the chief legal advisor and prosecutor of the State of Maine. The constitutional basis of the office is Article IX, Section 11 of the Maine Constitution, and the holder of the position is chosen biennially by the Main ...
Janet Mills
Janet Trafton Mills (born December 30, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 75th governor of Maine since January 2019. She previously served as the Maine Attorney General on two occasions.
A member of the Democratic Pa ...
.
On May 23, 2017, the Court issued its opinion that the law would be unconstitutional if it came before them, stating it would violate the provision of the Maine Constitution requiring elections to be decided by a plurality of the vote. State legislators had mixed reactions to the ruling, with Senate President
Michael Thibodeau calling for the law to be repealed and Democratic State Sen. Catherine Breen stating she would propose a Constitutional amendment to permit the law. The legislature's Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee on June 8 reported out to the floor five bills in reaction to the ruling, including one that would implement ranked-choice voting in 2018 for uses unaffected by the Court's opinion - that is, congressional elections and primaries. On October 23, 2017, the legislature voted to delay implementation of the RCV law for all races until 2021, to allow for time to pass a state constitutional amendment to allow it. This repeal affects even those races not affected by the Court's opinion, with the argument that Maine voters would be confused by a mix of RCV and non-RCV choices on a ballot. However, if such an amendment is not passed, the law would be repealed.
People's veto
Supporters, angered by the delay, launched a
people's veto signature-gathering effort to prevent it, pointing to its successful use in mixed-race ballots in Portland. The veto passed in June 2018 as
Question 1, restoring ranked-choice voting for primary and federal elections.
References
External links
Ranked Choice Voting Maine, supporters of the initiative
{{Maine elections
Election legislation
Electoral reform referendums
2016 Maine ballot measures
Electoral system ballot measures in the United States