Courts in Arkansas, Maine issue rulings affecting ranked-choice voting initiatives
This has been a busy period for ballot measures as many states are finalizing their ballots with the general election approaching. Two states—Arkansas and Maine—saw judicial decisions last week affecting the status of ranked-choice voting initiatives.
Ranked-choice voting is an electoral system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, he or she is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated. First-preference votes cast for that candidate are eliminated and the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots are now considered. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority and the process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority.
In 2016, voters approved the Maine Ranked Choice Voting Initiative by a vote of 52.1% to 47.9%, which provided for the use of ranked-choice voting in both primary and general elections for the state’s United States Senators, United States Representatives, the governor, and state legislators. The Maine Supreme Court issued an advisory opinion in 2017 stating that using ranked-choice voting for state-level general elections would violate the state constitution. In 2018, Maine was the first state to use ranked-choice voting for federal and state-level primaries. It was also used in the general election for federal offices, but not state-level offices.
Arkansas
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled on August 27 that a measure that would have created a top-four ranked-choice voting system in the state did not qualify for the ballot because initiative supporters did not certify to the secretary of state that petition signature gatherers passed background checks. In its ruling, the court agreed with Secretary of State John Thurston (R) that the background check certifications that were submitted by initiative sponsors do not comply with state law and that the collected signatures are not valid.
Supporters of the measure had submitted certifications stating that the background checks were acquired but did not say they were passed. Thurston had ruled July 14 that the signatures were insufficient for both the ranked-choice voting measure and a measure that would have changed Arkansas’ processes for federal and state legislative redistricting but had provisionally certified both measures for the ballot while the legal proceedings were pending.
Seven statewide ballot measures have been decertified this year, either because they were withdrawn or removed by a judge. In 2018, 17 measures were decertified. An average of 10 statewide measures were decertified from the ballot for even-numbered elections from 2010 to 2018.
Maine
A Maine Superior Court judge ruled August 24 that 988 petition signatures disqualified by Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D) were valid, meaning that supporters of a veto referendum challenging the state’s ranked-choice voting law had submitted enough signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot.
The veto referendum would repeal Legislative Document 1803 (LD 1803), which established ranked-choice voting for presidential primaries and general elections. Since the veto referendum qualified for the ballot, LD 1803 was suspended, meaning that ranked-choice voting will not be used in the presidential election.
The legislature passed LD 1803 expanding RCV to presidential elections in 2019. The Maine Republican Party is backing the veto referendum campaign, which is known as Repeal RCV. Maine is one of 15 Democratic trifectas, meaning that Democrats control both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s office.
To date, Maine is the only state to have implemented RCV at the state level. Eight states contain jurisdictions that have implemented RCV at some level. Another five states contain jurisdictions that have adopted but not yet implemented RCV in local elections. In November, voters in Alaska and Massachusetts will decide ballot measures to adopt ranked-choice voting.
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