Maine Representative Louis Luchini (D-Ellsworth) and five other legislators have introduced LD 295. Current law says the only way a party can remain on the ballot is to have had at least 10,000 registered members who actually voted in the general election (it doesn’t matter whom they voted for; they merely must have cast a ballot). The bill would retain that provision, but provide that a party also remains on if it polled at least 5% for the office at the top of the ballot. Here is a copy of the bill. Gary Johnson received more than 5% of the presidential vote in November 2016 in Maine.
Another bill, which hasn’t yet been introduced, but which is backed by the Secretary of State, would ease the procedures for a group to qualify as a party. The existing law required 5,000 registered voters by December of the year before the election, but that law was enjoined by a federal court last year.
The contention here would be, where is this 5% applied? Using IRV would it be applied only to round one of counting, or would it be that at any point in the counting and vote transfer process that a candidate gets over 5%?
AMcCarrick, A good point. This is a point that should be brought up with the committee that will be reviewing the bill. The text of the bill as currently presented should clarify this to avoid future problems.
Note, that since IRV isn’t going to be used on the presidential ballot, this will only effect the governor ballot.
I think the ideal manner of handling this would be to only use the first preference tally for this. This way voters who want to ensure a party maintain its status must vote for them as first preference, and not gamble on there being a second or third round.