On December 19, the Maine Green Party filed paperwork with the Maine Secretary of State, letting the state know that the party wants independent voters to sign petitions for Green Party primary candidates. Because Maine has very difficult primary petition requirements, this will help the party to run candidates in its own primary. The state requires primary candidates to submit 2,000 signatures for statewide office, which is very difficult for a party that doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of members. But if independent voters can sign, the burden is lessened. 32.1% of the Maine voters are registered independents.

Ever since the Green Party has been a qualified party in Maine, the primary petition hurdle has kept it from running anyone for either house of Congress. Hopefully that will now change. The procedure by which independents can sign primary petitions (for those parties that desire that) was only created this year.

Maine has ranked choice voting in general elections for congress.