AUGUSTA, Maine — In a reversal, Maine’s secretary of state said Republican U.S. Senate candidate Max Linn should be disqualified from the June primary ballot after a Tuesday hearing in which his campaign acknowledged “hanky-panky” related to his signature-gathering effort.
If it stands, the ruling by Secretary of State Matt Dunlap will leave state Sen. Eric Brakey of Auburn alone in the Republican primary for the nomination to take on independent U.S. Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats.
Dunlap’s decision was made after a Tuesday hearing in which Linn’s and Brakey’s campaigns agreed that dozens of nominating signatures submitted by Linn — including several purportedly from people who died or said they never signed a petition — were fraudulently obtained.
On Tuesday evening, Dunlap ruled that Linn, a retired financial planner from Bar Harbor, fell 10 signatures short of the threshold of 2,000 registered Republican voters required to qualify for a statewide primary. He invalidated 258 signatures of Linn’s signatures in all.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Maine secretary of state: Remove GOP hopeful Max Linn from Senate primary ballot,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.
