Maine Supreme Court says proposed ranked-choice voting expansion is unconstitutional
Maine's Supreme Judicial Court said Monday that a proposed expansion of ranked-choice voting would violate the state constitution.
A bill pending in the Legislature would expand ranked-choice voting to races for governor and legislative seats by counting only the final vote tally to decide a winner. The bill has enough support in the Democratic-controlled Legislature to pass, but lawmakers asked the state supreme court to examine the constitutionality of the measure, LD 1666, ahead of the 2026 elections.
In a unanimous advisory opinion, the justices on Maine's highest court said the language of the state constitution makes clear that the first candidate to earn a "plurality" of the vote wins those races. As a result, the justices said the constitution does not allow for the additional tabulations that are needed during a ranked-choice runoff.
"LD 1666's conception of a vote as being a series of instructions or rankings that when tabulated pursuant to a ranked-choice process leads to an eventual final vote is inconsistent with the constitutional concept of a 'vote,'" the justices wrote. "Under the Constitution, for each of the offices at issue here, a single vote is taken, with the votes sorted, counted, and declared once and then submitted by each municipality to the Secretary of State."
https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2026-04-06/maine-supreme-court-says-proposed-ranked-choice-voting-expansion-is-unconstitutional