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The highest court in Maine decided on Tuesday to allow use of ranked-choice voting for the first time in a presidential race.
In 2018, Maine allowed ranked-choice voting statewide so the Democrats pushed for it to apply to a presidential race too.
Republicans opposed ranked-choice voting and launched a citizens’ initiative petition in an effort to allow voters in Maine to decide whether it should apply to the presidential race.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap however said 1,000 petition signatures were not valid because they failed to be collected by a registered voter.
After sparring back and forth in the courts, the Democrats in Maine won.
The Democrats prefer ranked-choice voting because it creates murkiness, redistributes votes and also delays results when multiple candidates are on the ballot.
On Tuesday, the Maine Supreme Court allowed the use of choice-ranked voting in the general election.
Recall, in 2018, Democrat candidate Jared Golden was announced the winner of Maine’s 2nd Congressional district after an algorithm decided the race.
Then-Republican Congressman for Maine’s 2nd district, Bruce Poliquin filed a federal lawsuit in November of 2018 against Maine’s Secretary of State to stop an algorithm from deciding the election in his race against Democrat opponent Jared Golden.
Congressman Bruce Poliquin pointed out that Maine has a long history of plurality winners in its elections.
“This system only adds additional cost to taxpayers, creates overwhelming confusion for our citizens, and is ripe for mishandling and unlawful electioneering actions, as evidenced already,” Poliquin wrote on Facebook in 2018. “Mainers deserve better than their money being wasted, their frustrations growing, and their sacred right of voting being manipulated.”
The race was eventually called for Democrat Jared Golden after the algorithms decided in his favor.
Watch this video explaining ranked-choice voting:
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