On June 11, the Maine legislature passed LD 1666. The Senate vote was 20-14; the House vote was 72-70. It changes the definition of “ranked choice voting” to say that the system is a system which elects candidates who won a plurality. The bill doesn’t actually change how RCV works; it is a vocabulary tweak.
The reason this matters is that the State Supreme Court years ago interpreted the State Constitution to ban RCV in general elections for state office. That is why Maine uses RCV for federal primaries and federal general elections, and also uses it for state office primaries, but does not use it for state general elections. The backers of the bill hope that this vocabulary change will lead the State Supreme Court to approve RCV for state office general elections.
me Const – olde plurality – most – majority or minority
bill- attempt to re-define ME const by a mere law
RCV = majority election >>> bill is UNCONST
obvious remedy –
PR legis
APPV – nonpartisan execs/judics
Rotten communist voting needs to be outlawed.
If Congress could change the meaning of words in the Constitution by passing a law, they would have done it long ago.
I suspect the the Supreme Court in Maine won’t appreciate the legislature trying to do the Court’s “job”.
They have done it long ago, and many times.
ME Const — at least 2 plurality mentions
Article IV.
Part Second.
Senate.
Section 5. Determination of Senators elected; procedure for filling
vacancies. The Senate shall, on said first Wednesday of December, biennially determine
who is elected by a plurality of votes to be Senator in each district. All vacancies in the
Senate arising from death, resignation, removal from the State or like causes, and also
vacancies, if any, which may occur because of the failure of any district to elect by a
plurality of votes the Senator to which said district shall be entitled shall be filled by an
immediate election in the unrepresented district. The Governor shall issue a proclamation
therefor and therein fix the time of such election.
Article V.
Part First.
Executive Power.
Section 3. Election; votes to be returned to Secretary of State; Secretary of
State to lay lists before the Senate and House of Representatives; provision in case of
tie. The meetings for election of Governor shall be notified, held and regulated and votes
shall be received, sorted, counted and declared and recorded, in the same manner as those
for Senators and Representatives. Copies of lists of votes shall be sealed and returned to
the secretary’s office in the same manner and at the same time as those for Senators. The
Secretary of State for the time being shall, on the first Wednesday after the first Tuesday
of January then next, lay the lists returned to the secretary’s office before the Senate and
House of Representatives to be by them examined, together with the ballots cast if they so
elect, and they shall determine the number of votes duly cast for the office of Governor,
and in case of a choice by plurality of all of the votes returned they shall declare and publish
the same. If there shall be a tie between the 2 persons having the largest number of votes
for Governor, the House of Representatives and the Senate meeting in joint session, and
each member of said bodies having a single vote, shall elect one of said 2 persons having
so received an equal number of votes and the person so elected by the Senate and House
of Representatives shall be declared the Governor.
The legislators and courts have changed the meaning of words more times than anyone can count.