ME Ballot: Electoral-reform proponents scored a major—and unexpected—victory on Wednesday when Maine’s state legislature failed to advance a measure to repeal the state’s new instant-runoff voting (IRV) law, leaving it on course for implementation in 2018. In a non-binding opinion issued in May, Maine’s state Supreme Court opinion said that IRV (sometimes called ranked-choice voting) was unconstitutional for state-level general elections, but not for primaries or federal races. That opinion gave IRV’s opponents, who are mostly Republicans but include some Democrats, a pretext to unsuccessfully try to repeal the voter-approved statute, but that effort failed.
Republicans control the state Senate while Democrats run the state House, and the two parties reached a deal to hold a vote on a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the apparent legal conflict. However, it was all political theater, because GOP opposition meant that the amendment would never reach the two-thirds supermajorities needed to send it to a voter referendum for eventual ratification.
After the amendment predictably failed last week, the Senate proceeded to pass a billto fully repeal IRV, with a few Democrats siding with the Republicans. However, under pressure from activists—who had threatened to place a “people’s veto” on the ballot to block any repeal legislation—the House instead passed a competing measure. That proposal would implement IRV for primaries and federal races while merely suspending it for state general elections unless and until the constitution were amended to make that aspect kosher. Faced with differing bills, the opposing chambers failed to reach any compromise, taking repeal off the table this year as the 2017 legislative session draws to a close.
So where does that leave Maine voters? With the legislature at an impasse, the current legal landscape has IRV slated for full implementation starting in 2018. But thanks to the state Supreme Court’s advisory opinion, there will almost certainly be lawsuits to block IRV from going into effect for state general elections, which have a good chance of success. However, barring a major change of course by either legislative Democrats or the high court, IRV will be used in all primaries next year, plus the November general elections for the U.S. House and Senate.
As a result, Maine will become the first state in America to adopt instant-runoff voting statewide, although utilizing it for state-level general elections would have been the most important aspect of this reform since no candidate has won a majority in nine of the state’s last 11 gubernatorial races. Hopefully, if this more inclusive electoral system produces meaningful changes in primary outcomes on both sides of the aisle, voters of all stripes will demand their legislators pass a constitutional amendment to finally implement IRV for all races.