Supporters of Maine’s first-in-the-nation ranked-choice voting law say they could launch a people’s veto effort to keep the initiative alive. While approved by voters last fall, the law ran into constitutional problems, and could be scuttled by the Legislature. The threat of a people’s veto adds another layer of complexity to a political stalemate. The ranked-choice voting law ran into a legal problem. After it was approved, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion finding that the law was unconstitutional for use in general elections for governor or the Legislature.
Kyle Bailey with the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting says his group would accept a bill that implements ranked-choice voting for elections other than those.
“If they choose not to do so, certainly supporters of ranked-choice voting have the option to do a people’s veto to repeal the Legislature’s repeal and to restore the ranked-choice voting law as enacted by voters,” Bailey said.
If the group decides to launch a people’s veto effort, it will have to gather more than 61,000 signatures. And it could mean that the state will have to implement the new system for at least one election — the June 2018 primaries.
Full Article: Ranked-choice voting supporters consider people’s veto if legislature scraps law — Politics — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine.