Supporters of ranked-choice voting have collected more than half the signatures needed for a 2018 referendum to overturn a law that delays switching to the voting process for four years. Campaign volunteers got approximately 32,000 signatures outside the polls Tuesday, a day after receiving state approval for the petition, said Kyle Bailey, campaign manager for the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting. The campaign needs 61,123 signatures from registered voters to get a people’s veto on the June 2018 ballot. The campaign has heard back from approximately 70 percent of Election Day petitioners and hundreds of other people have since requested petition packets so they can collect signatures, Bailey said Saturday.
“That number keeps ticking up as people get back to us,” he said. The campaign had 90 days from Nov. 6 to collect signatures but aims to finish by Dec. 15. It needs about 1,000 signatures a day to reach that goal.
Maine voters approved ranked-choice voting in 2016, but the state supreme court ruled parts of the law unconstitutional. In October, lawmakers voted to delay implementation of ranked-choice voting until 2021 and repeal the law if the Maine Constitution isn’t amended to deal with legal concerns raised by the court.
Based on the response the campaign received last week, voters are fed up with the Legislature’s obstruction, Bailey said.
Full Article: Campaign to restore Maine ranked-choice voting collects over half the signatures needed for a people’s veto – Portland Press Herald.