On Tuesday, Maine’s state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a 2016 ballot initiative that switched Maine’s elections to instant-runoff voting for state and congressional races violates the state constitution. This ruling was a non-binding advisory opinion, meaning the court did not yet formally strike down the law that voters had approved 52-48 last year, but it casts serious doubt on the prospect of the legislature actually implementing instant runoff (sometimes called ranked-choice voting) as scheduled ahead for the 2018 elections.
Had this provision gone into effect, Maine would have become the first state in the country to adopt instant-runoff voting for Senate, House, gubernatorial, and state legislative races. That system lets voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no one initially attains a majority of first preferences, the last place candidate gets eliminated, and votes for that candidate shift to each voter’s second preference. That process repeats until one candidate achieves a majority. However, the court found that this violated a state constitutional provision that says that the plurality winner is elected.
Consequently, legislators will most likely repeal the law to avoid a near-certain lawsuit to block its implementation. While legislative proponents quickly pledged to introduce a state constitutional amendment, that would require two-thirds support in both legislative chambers before it could head to a statewide vote. Republicans mostly opposed the reform and they hold a one-seat majority in the state Senate, while many Democrats opposed instant-runoff voting as well, in part because it would empower independent candidates.
In the 9 of Maine’s past 11 gubernatorial elections since 1974, the winner had only secured a plurality of the vote. The problems of the status quo became readily apparent in the 2010 Republican wave election when Trump-like tea party GOP Gov. Paul LePage won his first term by a mere 38-36 plurality over a fractured field of left-leaning opponents. Despite an obvious appetite for electoral-system reform and a strong independent streak, Maine voters lack the power to initiate constitutional amendments. Their only recourse appears to be the daunting task of voting in new legislators who will support instant-runoff voting.