A sign promoting Election Day voting is seen in Oct. 2025 along Main Street in Lewiston. (Libby Kamrowski Kenny/Staff Photographer)
A proposed expansion of ranked-choice voting to include races for governor and the state Legislature would violate the Maine Constitution, the state’s high court determined Monday.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued its unanimous opinion in response to a request from lawmakers that they weigh in on the legality of a bill, LD 1666, currently in the Legislature. The measure would expand the state’s ranked-choice voting system, which is currently used for federal races and state primaries.
“Based on the language and structure of the Constitution itself, we conclude that L.D. 1666 … would, if enacted, violate the Maine Constitution,” the justices wrote in their order.
Proponents of the bill, including attorneys for Maine’s Democratic legislative leaders and the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Maine, agreed with opponents in court last week that the Maine Constitution stipulates that the winners of state elections must be determined by a plurality, or whoever has the most votes.
But proponents said lawmakers have the ability to determine how a plurality is decided, and structured their arguments around what constitutes a vote.
Peter Brann, attorney for Maine Senate President Mattie Daughtry and House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, said the ranked-choice ballot does not contain multiple votes. Instead, it contains instructions on how a single vote is to be counted.
“You have to look at the ballot in its entirety,” Brann said.
The justices, however, said that interpretation is inconsistent with the concept of a “vote” in the Maine Constitution.
“The provisions requiring election by a plurality of votes do not allow for the counting of additional votes or ‘tabulations’ based on ‘instruction from the voter,’” they wrote.
The justices also rejected arguments that they should look at a 2022 decision out of Alaska that disagreed with a Maine high court ruling from 2017. That year, the Supreme Judicial Court also found that the use of ranked-choice voting in general election races for governor and the state Legislature would be unconstitutional.
Alaska is the only other state that uses ranked-choice voting on a statewide level. But Alaska’s constitution gives broader authority to the Legislature to oversee elections, and does not provide the same detail as the Maine Constitution about what constitutes a vote, the justices wrote.
Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, the sponsor of LD 1666, said in a written statement Monday that while her proposal won’t be moving forward, it was important work.
“Today’s decision is not the outcome I hoped for, but it doesn’t change why this effort mattered,” Reny said. “Maine voters made clear at the ballot box when they adopted ranked-choice voting that they want a stronger, more representative democracy. As legislators, it’s our responsibility to make sure the laws they enact are fully and faithfully implemented.”
Ranked-choice voting was first adopted following a statewide referendum in 2016. The system allows voters to rank candidates in races with three or more contenders in order of preference.
If no candidate gets more than 50% support in the first round, then the last-place finisher is eliminated, the second-choice votes of the eliminated candidate’s supporters are reallocated to the remaining candidates and the results are retabulated. The process repeats until a winning candidate receives more than 50% support.
The Maine Republican Party, which opposes the expansion, issued a written statement from its chair, Jim Deyermond, celebrating the court’s opinion on Monday.
“Today is a good day,” Deyermond said. “The Constitution of Maine is preserved and respected, and this decision provides clarity against efforts to pollute our state elections with ranked-choice voting.”
Staff Writer Billy Kobin contributed to this story.
