FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, Nov. 6, 2017
Contact: Kristen Schulze Muszynski
o: 626-8404/ c: 441-7638

Secretary Dunlap issues petitions for people’s veto of ranked choice voting law

AUGUSTA – Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap is issuing the petitions today for a People’s Veto of Chaptered Law #316, “An Act to Implement Ranked-Choice Voting in 2021.”

The wording of the veto question, as drafted by the Office of the Secretary of State, is:

“Do you want to reject the parts of a new law that would delay the use of ranked-choice voting in the election of candidates for any state or federal office until 2022, and then retain the method only if the constitution is amended by December 1, 2021, to allow ranked-choice voting for candidates in state elections?”

Proponents of the veto effort must now gather at least 61,123 signatures of registered Maine voters and submitted the signed petition forms to the Office of the Secretary of State no later than the 90th day after adjournment of the Legislature, a date that has yet to be determined.

Implementation of the law will be stayed upon receipt of the signed petitions at the Office of the Secretary of State. The office then has 30 days to certify the petitions, to determine if the threshold of registered voters has been met. If it is certified to have the required number of signatures, the veto question will go before voters in the June 2018 election.