Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Judge blocks use of ranked voting in Maine presidential balloting

Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap

Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said he hopes to win a reversal of the ruling, but the window is closing.

Portland Press Herald/Getty Images

Griffiths is the editor of Independent Voter News, where a version of this story first appeared.

Despite a series of legal challenges, Maine was set to be the first state to use ranked-choice voting in presidential elections this year. That has changed after a Superior Court ruling.

Judge Thomas McKeon reversed Democratic Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap's determination that the Maine Republican Party had not gathered enough valid signatures to challenge the use ranked-choice voting for presidential elections. Now, RCV is set to go before Maine voters for a third time in four years.


"Mainers have already made their decision clear, year after year: they want ranked choice voting in their elections. Putting it on the ballot a third time will not change their minds," said Anna Kellar, executive director for the League of Women Voters of Maine.

The decision came down to a difference in state constitutional interpretation. The Maine Constitution requires petition circulators to be residents of the state and registered to vote in the municipality in which they are collecting signatures. Since two circulators were not registered to vote in their municipalities, Dunlap invalidated the signatures they gathered.

However, McKeon ruled that the circulators didn't have to be registered to vote at the time they collected the signatures. (They registered in those towns before turning in the petitions.) The decision restored barely enough signatures for the RCV challenge to appear on the November ballot.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Because the state must print ballots by Friday, there is little room to appeal. But according to the Bangor Daily News, Dunlap said he would seek a reversal, either by asking the judge to change his ruling or by appealing to the state Supreme Court.

FairVote, the nation's leading advocate for ranked choice voting, added a national perspective to the court's decision:

"We all want the same things from our elections: candidates want to run knowing their race won't be 'spoiled' or held hostage by vote-splitting, and voters want to make choices based on their own convictions, not careful calculations about electability," said Rob Richie, the group's president and CEO. "As cities and states across the country adopt ranked choice voting, we're confident Mainers will continue to lead with this sensible electoral reform."

RCV, which has faced numerous challenges in Maine, will still be used in down-ballot races this fall.

Visit IVN.us for more coverage from Independent Voter News.

Read More

Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

The Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland releases a new survey, fielded February 6-7, 2025, with a representative sample of 1,160 adults nationwide.

Pexels, Tima Miroshnichenko

Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

An overwhelming majority of 89% of Americans say the U.S. should spend at least one percent of the federal budget on foreign aid—the current amount the U.S. spends on aid. This includes 84% of Republicans and 94% of Democrats.

Fifty-eight percent oppose abolishing the U.S. Agency for International Development and folding its functions into the State Department, including 77% of Democrats and 62% of independents. But 60% of Republicans favor the move.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Super Bowl of Unity

A crowd in a football stadium.

Getty Images, Adamkaz

A Super Bowl of Unity

Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, and perhaps it is fitting that the Philadelphia Eagles won Sunday night's Super Bowl 59, given the number of messages of unity, resilience, and coming together that aired throughout the evening.

The unity messaging started early as the pre-game kicked off with movie star Brad Pitt narrating a moving ad that champions residence and togetherness in honor of those who suffered from the Los Angeles fires and Hurricane Helen:

Keep ReadingShow less
The Paradox for Independents

A handheld American Flag.

Canva Images

The Paradox for Independents

Political independents in the United States are not chiefly moderates. In The Independent Voter, Thomas Reilly, Jacqueline Salit, and Omar Ali make it clear that independents are basically anti-establishment. They have a "mindset" that aims to dismantle the duopoly in our national politics.

I have previously written about different ways that independents can obtain power in Washington. First, they can get elected or converted in Washington and advocate with their own independent voices. Second, they can seek a revolution in which they would be the most dominant voice in Washington. And third, a middle position, they can seek a critical mass in the Senate especially, namely five to six seats, which would give them leverage to help the majority party get to 60 votes on policy bills.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

A single pawn separated from a group of pawns.

Canva Images

The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

Excerpt from To Stop a Tyrant by Ira Chaleff

In my book To Stop a Tyrant, I identify five types of a political leader’s followers. Given the importance of access in politics, I range these from the more distant to the closest. In the middle are bureaucrats. No political leader can accomplish anything without a cadre of bureaucrats to implement their vision and policies. Custom, culture and law establish boundaries for a bureaucrat’s freedom of action. At times, these constraints must be balanced with moral considerations. The following excerpt discusses ways in which bureaucrats need to thread this needle.

Keep ReadingShow less