Welcome to the Friday, September 11, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

1. Maine Supreme Court ruling allows state to print general election ballots using ranked-choice voting for president
2. Register for our Sept. 16 briefing on the competitiveness of state legislative elections
3. Candidate Connection spotlight

Maine Supreme Court ruling allows state to print general election ballots using ranked-choice voting for president

Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap (D) announced September 8 that the state will print general election ballots using ranked-choice voting for president after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court blocked a lower court’s decision on a veto referendum on the topic. Pending a final ruling from the state Supreme Judicial Court, Maine is tentatively slated to be the first state to use ranked-choice voting in a presidential election.

The Maine Republican Party is supporting a veto referendum to overturn Legislative Document 1083 (LD 1083), which established ranked-choice voting for presidential primaries and general elections. Proponents filed 72,512 signatures with the secretary of state on June 15, of which 63,067 needed to be valid. Dunlap’s office determined 62,143 signatures were valid.

A state Superior Court judge ruled August 24 that Dunlap should not have rejected 988 signatures because the petition circulators were not registered to vote when they were collecting signatures. The judge reinstated the signatures after determining that circulators were only required to be registered to vote when the signatures were submitted.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued a stay but has not yet decided on the merits of the case. It leaves in place the secretary of state’s original determination that supporters of the veto referendum against LD 1083 did not collect enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for September 15.

According to the Portland Press Herald, "The top court has until Sept. 24 to decide the appeal and uphold or overturn Dunlap’s July ruling. If it sides with Republicans, ranked-choice voting would be put on hold for the presidential race in November – and voters would likely decide the ballot measure at the next statewide election. If the court sides with Dunlap and the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting, then voters would rank their candidates by preference in the presidential race and the veto question would be dead."

Maine was the first state to establish a statewide system of ranked-choice voting following voter approval in 2016. Voters in Alaska and Massachusetts will decide on ranked-choice voting measures on November 3.

Superior courts in Maine are the state's trial courts of general jurisdiction. It is one of three levels of trial courts in Maine, along with district and probate courts. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the state's court of last resort and has appellate jurisdiction of all cases. There are six judges currently serving on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and one vacancy. Democratic governors appointed four of the court's justices. Republican governors appointed two justices.

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Register for our Sept. 16 briefing on the competitiveness of state legislative elections

Since 2010, Ballotpedia has been tracking and analyzing the competitiveness of state legislative elections, and we publish an annual report detailing those results.  For instance, a decade-high 85% of incumbents are seeking re-election this year. Comparatively, 80.4% of incumbents sought re-election in 2018, while 82.4% did so in 2016.

On September 16, I’ll be hosting a briefing looking at how competitive these elections are this year and how that’s changed over the past decade. We’ll look at how our competitiveness measures vary from state to state and highlight any national trends.

Ballotpedia uses three factors to analyze the competitiveness of a state's legislative elections:

• how many incumbents filed for re-election, 
• how many incumbents have contested primaries, and 
• how many seats are contested between a Democratic and a Republican candidate in the general election.

We highlighted several different findings from this year’s report in the Brew last week. If you found those insights really interesting, or if you just want to learn about this topic for the first time, then this webinar is for you.

The briefing takes place at 11:00 am Central Time on Sept. 16. Just click the link below to register. And remember—it's free! And if you can’t attend the webinar live, we send everyone who registers a link to the recording when it’s finished so you can watch it on your schedule!

Candidate Connection spotlight

Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey asks people running for office questions about what they stand for, what’s important to them, and what they want to do if elected. We designed it to help voters gain insights about their candidates as people and learn how each feels about various topics.

We invite all candidates with a profile on Ballotpedia to complete our survey. On Fridays, we’ve been including selected responses we’ve received this cycle to certain questions.

Here’s a look at the last three survey questions we've highlighted:

• If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?
• Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?
• What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

This week’s question is fun and light-hearted: What was the last song that got stuck in your head? We received 1,497 responses so far, and here are some selected ones:

“‘Let It Go’ from Frozen; mostly because my granddaughters belted it out non-stop when they saw the movie over and over again.”

-Randy Boothe, Republican candidate for District 13 of the Utah State Board of Education

“‘It's Quiet Uptown’ from the Hamilton Broadway soundtrack.

“It's a beautiful song by Lin-Manuel Miranda about love, loss, marriage and forgiveness... about how we all suffer unimaginable hardship in our lives... and yet find a way through with love. It's my go-to song to calm myself on days when I feel stressed or pulled in too many directions. And I love the message of forgiveness. It reminds me that we are all doing our best and to always give others the benefit of the doubt because you don't know what they are going through.”

-Kate Schroder, Democratic candidate for Ohio's 1st Congressional District

“I am learning how to speak Spanish, so I listen to WPAT Radio - I find the melodies for some of the songs stuck in my head without either knowing and understanding all the lyrics or even knowing the name of the song.

“Additionally, I have a Leonard Cohen song stuck in my head about how the game is fixed. I have yet to search for the lyrics or the title of the song."

-Madelyn Hoffman, Green Party candidate running for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey

If a candidate hasn't yet responded to our survey, send them this link and ask them to complete it. We’ll include their responses on their profile so we can all learn more about them!

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