Maine voters are heading toward another election season shaped by a split between how candidates are chosen in primaries versus in general elections, leaving many residents to navigate ranked-choice voting rules that do not apply everywhere. Maine, the first state in the nation to adopt statewide ranked-choice voting, has used the system in state and federal primaries and in federal general elections, but it still relies on plurality voting—where the candidate with the most votes wins regardless of whether they reach a majority—for general elections governing who serves in the State House and who becomes governor.
The approach traces to a 2016 voter decision that approved ranked-choice voting for state legislative, gubernatorial and federal elections. Nearly a decade later, implementation is still partial. Ranked-choice voting in Maine’s June primaries will require voters to rank candidates for governor, the state Legislature and federal offices in order of preference, with counting beginning by awarding votes to each voter’s first choice. If no candidate receives more than half of the votes, last-place candidates are eliminated and their votes are reallocated to the next-ranked choices, with the process continuing until a candidate secures more than 50% and wins.
That structure, however, will not extend to November general elections for state office. In those general elections for governor and the Legislature, Maine continues to use plurality voting, meaning voters choose one candidate and the person with the highest initial vote total wins, even if that vote share falls short of a majority. The result is a hybrid system that applies ranked-choice voting to some contests but not others, including the possibility that ranked-choice voting could still be used for the U.S. Senate and congressional races in November while state office contests remain plurality.
Maine election officials and advocacy groups acknowledge that the mix can confuse voters and has prompted efforts to provide additional guidance. Kate McBrien, the chief of staff for Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said the issue is not just the voting method but which races use it. “It is confusing for folks,” McBrien said. “What we hear from everyone is what’s confusing is which races it applies to and why doesn’t it apply to all of them.” To address that, the secretary of state’s office has been hosting community events aimed at helping voters learn how ranked-choice voting works and where it applies on their ballots.
Chrissy Hart, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Maine—an organization that supported ranked-choice voting’s expansion—also pointed to the potential for confusion under the current hybrid landscape. Hart said the group has confidence in Maine voters’ ability to navigate ballots but would prefer continuity across primary and general elections. “We certainly have confidence in the Maine voter and voters’ ability to navigate their ballots, and we do everything we can to support civic education to that end,” Hart said. “But we would vastly prefer to see continuity between what folks experience in the primary and general elections.”
The limited reach of ranked-choice voting is tied less to voter support than to constitutional and legal constraints. While Maine voters endorsed broad use of ranked-choice voting twice—first in 2016 and again in a 2018 statewide referendum that prevented lawmakers from delaying implementation—Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court has issued two unanimous, non-binding advisory opinions concluding that using ranked-choice voting in general elections for governor and the State House would be out of step with the Maine Constitution. For nearly 150 years, the state’s founding document has directed that lawmakers and the governor be elected by plurality, with the court concluding that plurality requirements are incompatible with ranked-choice counting that involves multiple rounds until someone surpasses 50%.
That constitutional distinction helps explain why ranked-choice voting can be used in primaries and some federal contests but not in general elections for state offices. The secretary of state’s office, according to its website, says primaries and federal office elections are governed by statute rather than by the Maine Constitution, while the general elections for state office operate under the constitutional plurality provisions. The constitutional concerns, supporters and opponents alike have said, did not emerge after the 2016 referendum—Democrats and Republicans raised questions beforehand about whether ranked-choice voting would conflict with the state Constitution.
After the 2016 ballot initiative passed, the debate in Augusta often broke along party lines, with Maine Democrats and some independents generally supportive of ranked-choice voting and Republicans opposing its expansion and seeking repeal. Those dynamics have also shaped legislative strategy. Republican efforts to remove the ranked-choice voting law have not succeeded in the Democrat-controlled State House, while attempts by Democrats and some independents to amend the state Constitution have met Republican resistance and failed to reach the two-thirds threshold to send amendments to voters.
Legislative Democrats also tried another approach this spring after previous efforts did not produce a constitutional amendment. Instead of seeking constitutional change through the Legislature, they advanced legislation—L.D. 1666—that attempted to change language in Maine’s ranked-choice voting law and harmonize it with the Constitution’s plurality requirements. With elections nearing and ongoing questions about ranked-choice voting’s reach, lawmakers asked the Maine Supreme Judicial Court for advice through a process the state Constitution reserves for “solemn occasions” addressing “important questions of law.” According to court records, the court has issued just four advisory opinions since 2017, including two on ranked-choice voting.
In April, the justices issued a unanimous opinion closing the door on the latest expansion effort, again advising that extending ranked-choice voting to general elections for governor and the State House would be unconstitutional. The court said the proposed approach treated a vote as “a series of instructions or rankings” that, when tabulated under a ranked-choice process, leads to an eventual final vote, which it said conflicted with the constitutional concept of “a ‘vote.’” The court’s opinion described constitutional language requiring officials to “determine the number of votes duly cast” and, in a plurality outcome, “declare and publish” the results.
The non-binding advisory opinion effectively ended the legislative push for L.D. 1666 for this cycle, with the Legislature adjourning on April 29. Supporters and opponents disputed the reasoning, with ranked-choice voting backers citing arguments that ranked-choice voting already aligns with the Constitution and pointing to a 2022 Alaska Supreme Court decision that upheld broad ranked-choice voting in that state. A U.S. district court judge in Maine had also ruled earlier that Maine’s ranked-choice voting use did not violate the U.S. Constitution, but Maine’s justices remained unconvinced when confronted with those newer arguments and developments.
The court’s recent opinion also prompted renewed confusion among some voters, the secretary of state’s office said. McBrien said her office has heard from people who believed the advisory opinion meant ranked-choice voting was eliminated entirely. “We’ve been hearing some confusion on social media, but also just comments that we’ve received, that people were misinterpreting the decision thinking that it meant ranked-choice voting was gone completely,” McBrien said. “And that’s simply not the case. The court decision keeps in place how the state works with ranked-choice voting now and just simply doesn’t expand it.”
Some proponents criticized the focus on constitutional wording that they viewed as “obscure.” Kyle Bailey, a former campaign manager for the pro-ranked-choice voting committee behind the 2016 ballot initiative, said ranked-choice voting was “twice approved by Maine voters” and remains law until voters decide otherwise. Bailey also argued that advisory opinions are non-binding and questioned why the justices emphasized constitutional provisions spelling out how votes are sorted, counted and finalized. Hart, for the League of Women Voters, said the organization disagreed with the court’s interpretation but said it respects the court’s role in the process.
Sen. Cameron Reny, a Democratic lead sponsor of L.D. 1666, said she expects the effort to expand ranked-choice voting to continue, potentially through another constitutional amendment route in a future session. She said the ruling disappointed her but added that the effort to fully implement ranked-choice voting in Maine continues and that the approach in the next legislative period “might” look different. On the other side, Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, said Republicans have “no interest in advancing ranked-choice voting in any way,” characterizing the effort as a “pretty desperate grab” by Democrats to change the system despite what he described as constitutional problems. Savage also said Republicans would likely argue that ranked-choice voting should not be used at all.
Beyond the court’s latest advisory opinion, political maneuvering is likely to determine whether Maine ever moves away from its hybrid model. Democratic supporters of expansion would likely need to win a supermajority in both chambers to overcome Republican opposition and reach the two-thirds threshold for constitutional change. Republicans seeking repeal would likely need to win control of both legislative chambers and the governor’s race or secure a veto-proof majority. With neither party’s likely path appearing imminent, Maine’s ranked-choice voting patchwork—used in some contests but not others—looks set to persist for the upcoming election cycle.
For voters, the practical concern may remain the same: Maine is using ranked-choice voting in some contests while using plurality voting in others, and residents who do not follow each development may not know what method applies to their ballot. Matt Dunlap, now running in the Democratic primary for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, said using ranked-choice voting in some elections but not others is “absolutely” a recipe for confusion and frustration for voters who are focused on day-to-day responsibilities. He said voters are “people, people who have lives,” and that they are not necessarily tracking “what we’re doing in Augusta,” even after ranked-choice voting has now been used in several elections. He also described the idea of running a perfect system as elusive, saying there is “no perfect way to run an election.”