FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, March 5, 2018
Contact: Kristen Schulze Muszynski
Office: 626-8404/ Cell: 441-7638

Ranked-choice voting people’s veto effort found valid with 66,687 signatures

AUGUSTA – Certification of the people’s veto of “An Act to Implement Ranked-choice Voting in 2021” is complete and Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap confirmed today that the effort has enough valid signatures to move forward to a vote.

The proponents of this veto effort submitted 14,026 petitions with 77,305 signatures to the Elections Division of the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. Elections Division staff have completed the process of certifying the petitions and found 66,687 valid signatures, while 10,618 were not valid. Petitions for this effort were issued on Nov. 6, 2017 and a minimum of 61,123 signatures from registered Maine voters is required.

The veto question will now go before voters at the primary election on June 12, 2018 and the primary elections for U.S. Senate, Governor, U.S. Congress, State Senate and State Representative will be decided by a system of ranked-choice voting.

The Secretary of State’s office has prepared an implementation plan outlining all the steps necessary to conduct the June 12 primary election using ranked-choice voting.  Implementation of that plan will begin immediately.  

This people’s veto effort would repeal parts of Public Law 2017, Chapter 316, which was passed by the Maine Legislature in October 2017. Ranked-choice voting was initially approved by the voters in November 2016; legislators voted for the delay/indefinite postponement due to constitutional conflicts in the ranked-choice voting law. The law would delay the implementation of ranked-choice voting until December 1, 2021 unless, prior to that date, the voters of the State ratify an amendment to the constitution of Maine; and would indefinitely postpone implementation if the constitutional change is not made. 

The people’s veto seeks a partial implementation of ranked-choice voting, as permitted by the Maine Constitution, for Maine’s primary elections and for federal elections. If the ballot question is approved in June, ranked-choice voting would be used for the offices of U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress for the general election in November. If it is not approved, PL 2017, C. 316 will take effect and ranked-choice voting will not be implemented, unless the voters amend the constitution as provided therein.

Visit http://maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/citizens/index.html to view the proposed legislation in its entirety.