The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will convene at 2 p.m. Thursday in Portland to hear arguments in a rush to decide whether ranked-choice voting will be used for the June 12 primary election.
The hastily scheduled hearing comes just one day after Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy asked the high court to weigh in on a case brought by the Maine Senate. Parties in the case have until noon to file arguments of not more than 10 pages.
[How Maine ended up in a legal showdown over ranked-choice voting]
The high court has been asked to consider these seven questions, which rely on 15 pages of stipulated facts, which attorneys on both sides of the case — plus intervenors from the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting — have agreed to as accurate.
— Has the Senate proven that the secretary of state’s office has the authority to implement ranked-choice voting for the primary with money it already has? Or does the separation of powers clause in the Maine Constitution or language in the 2017 biennial budget bill, which doesn’t reference ranked-choice voting, prevent that?
TheCounty is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Maine’s top court sets new hearing on ranked-choice voting,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Christopher Cousins, please follow this link to the BDN online.
