2016 Maine Question 5

In the eleven Maine gubernatorial elections prior to 2016, only two candidates (incumbent governors Joe Brennan in 1982 and Angus King in 1998) won more than 50% of the vote.[4] Typically gubernatorial elections have more than two significant candidates; the 2010 election had five candidates, with Paul LePage emerging as the winner with 37.6% of the vote.[5] Some public opinion felt that his victory was due to opponents of LePage dividing their votes between Democratic candidate Libby Mitchell and independent candidate Eliot Cutler.[6]

Proposals to enact ranked-choice voting have been introduced in the legislature as early as 2003, but were rejected.[7][8] After a 2010 charter change, the city of Portland began electing its mayor using ranked-choice voting in 2011. There were new legislative proposals in 2011, though they were rejected as well.[9] In 2014, upon releasing his supporters to vote for someone else in the 2014 election, Eliot Cutler encouraged his supporters to support ranked-choice voting.[10] Led by former independent State Senator Dick Woodbury, Ranked Choice Voting collected more than the 61,123 valid signatures necessary to put a proposal to voters, collecting some 40,000 on Election Day 2014. The group collected 75,369 signatures and delivered them to Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap by October 19, 2015. Dunlap ultimately certified 64,687 signatures by November 18, 2015, which put the proposal on the November 2016 ballot.[11]

Per the Maine Constitution, the proposal went to the legislature in its 2016 session, but it did not act on the measure. On January 20, 2016, the Maine House of Representatives voted to place the proposal on the ballot without holding a public hearing, over the objections of Republicans, led by Rep. Heather Sirocki, expressing concern about the constitutionality of the proposal.[12] Secretary of State Dunlap released the final wording of the question on June 23 as it was to appear on the ballot: "Do you want to allow voters to rank their choices of candidates in elections for U.S. Senate, Congress, Governor, State Senate, and State Representative, and to have ballots counted at the state level in multiple rounds in which last-place candidates are eliminated until a candidate wins by majority?"[13]

Supporters of the proposal, led by Ranked Choice Voting Maine, contend that it will lead to people voting for the candidate that they support and end strategic voting to vote merely for the candidate that they think will win, and that the ranked choice system will result in a candidate that has some level of support from a majority of voters. They further contend that ranked-choice voting will result in less negative campaigning, as candidates will need to appeal to a broad coalition of voters beyond their base of supporters to gain support as a second or third choice, if needed.

On February 3, 2017, the Maine Senate voted 24–10 to ask the Maine Supreme Judicial Court for an advisory opinion as to the constitutionality of the approved proposal, after concerns about its constitutionality were expressed by Maine Attorney General Janet Mills.[33]

On May 23, 2017, the Court issued its opinion that the law would be unconstitutional if it came before them, stating it would violate the provision of the Maine Constitution requiring elections to be decided by a plurality of the vote.[34] State legislators had mixed reactions to the ruling, with Senate President Michael Thibodeau calling for the law to be repealed and Democratic State Sen. Catherine Breen stating she would propose a Constitutional amendment to permit the law.[35] The legislature's Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee on June 8 reported out to the floor five bills in reaction to the ruling, including one that would implement ranked-choice voting in 2018 for uses unaffected by the Court's opinion - that is, congressional elections and primaries.[36] On October 23, 2017, the legislature voted to delay implementation of the RCV law for all races until 2021, to allow for time to pass a state constitutional amendment to allow it. This repeal affects even those races not affected by the Court's opinion, with the argument that Maine voters would be confused by a mix of RCV and non-RCV choices on a ballot. However, if such an amendment is not passed, the law would be repealed.[37]

• Ranked Choice Voting Maine Archived 2015-11-21 at the Wayback Machine, supporters of the initiative