[PORTLAND] — Today lawyers representing the League of Women Voters of Maine defended the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting (RCV) before the Maine Supreme Court. The court reviewed LD 1666, a bill that will expand RCV to state legislative and gubernatorial general elections. The bill was passed by the Maine Legislature in February when legislators called for a solemn occasion and enabled the process for the court to review and issue a new advisory opinion on RCV.
Maine voters first approved the full use of RCV in a 2016 referendum, but an advisory opinion, nonbinding and with little legal analysis, issued by the Maine Supreme Court in 2017 prevented the use of RCV in state legislative and gubernatorial general elections. Maine has used RCV for federal elections, and for federal and state primaries, since 2018.
“The League has long held that ranked-choice voting is fully consistent with the Maine State Constitution,” said Chrissy Hart, Executive Director for LWVME. “Maine legislators also agreed that it is constitutional when they passed our bill, LD 1666. The time is ripe for the Maine Supreme Court to revisit this issue almost a decade later, and now with more legal precedence and experience. It’s important for both the legislative and judicial branches to agree that ranked-choice voting is indeed constitutional.”
“Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that the life of the law is experience. He could have been talking about this ranked-choice voting case. With over a decade of experience in Maine, we are entering a new era for ranked-choice voting, and it’s time for a new statement of the law that is informed by that experience.” — John Brautigam, Legal Counsel for LWVME
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that RCV elections comply with plurality requirements, and their decision states that the Maine Supreme Court got this question wrong in its 2017 advisory opinion. The Alaska Supreme Court opinion states: “The court’s failure to pinpoint constitutional text, structure, or policies inconsistent with ranked-choice voting leaves us unconvinced by its analysis.”
In 2024, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued an opinion addressing Maine’s RCV process and concluded that, “the entire ranked-choice voting process, including all necessary rounds of vote tallying, constitutes a single general election under the [Federal Election Campaign] Act.”
The rulings at the Alaska Supreme Court and the FEC set new legal precedence in the overall RCV landscape and what is considered, and accepted, as a plurality vote. The Maine Supreme Court will review oral arguments and briefs and may take up to two weeks to issue an advisory opinion on LD 1666.
"Ranked-choice voting has the power to transform how we choose and select our leaders. It is a proven tool to increase women's representation in government, gives voters more meaningful choices, encourages collaborative campaigns, and creates space for new or innovative voices — all part of the work of fostering gender-just governance. At the Maine Women's Lobby, we hope to see RCV for every election not only in Maine but nationwide." – Destie Hohman Sprague, Executive Director for Maine Women’s Lobby
The League of Women Voters of Maine spent several years shaping a new ranked-choice voting bill that will expand RCV to include state legislative and gubernatorial general elections. The bill became LD 1666 and was introduced in the 132nd Legislature, with support from the bill sponsor Sen. Cameron Reny.
LD 1666 is constitutional under the Maine Constitution because the winner of the final RCV tabulation is a plurality winner. The plurality winner is the winner of the final RCV tally, not the candidate with the most first-place rankings. Or in other words, the winner is the candidate who receives the most votes by the final tabulation round.