Maine Republicans are launching an effort to get a people's veto to repeal ranked-choice voting in the November presidential election."One person, one vote is a bedrock American principle," said Demi Kouzounas, chair of the Maine Republican Party's ballot question committee. "Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a direct violation of that principle and threatens the rights of all Mainers and delegitimatizes our election process."Kouzounas and the Republican party want to prevent ranked-choice voting from being used in the 2020 presidential election. To do that, they will need to submit 63,067 signatures of registered Maine voters before the 90th day after the end of the current legislative session to get the people's veto on the ballot. Lawmakers approved a bill allowing Mainers to use ranked-choice voting in presidential elections on Aug. 26 last year. It went into effect 10 days later, without the signature of Gov. Janet Mills. Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank all candidates on the ballot. If no candidate gets a majority of first-round votes, last-place candidates are eliminated. Anyone who ranked the last-place candidate first will then have their second-choice counted instead. Once ranked-choice tabulation is triggered, it continues until all rounds have been tallied, assuring the winner has a majority of votes. Maine was the first state to use ranked-choice voting in the U.S. Senate and House races in November 2018. As it stands, ranked-choice will be used for the presidential election in November, but not for primaries this March.

Maine Republicans are launching an effort to get a people's veto to repeal ranked-choice voting in the November presidential election.

"One person, one vote is a bedrock American principle," said Demi Kouzounas, chair of the Maine Republican Party's ballot question committee. "Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a direct violation of that principle and threatens the rights of all Mainers and delegitimatizes our election process."


Kouzounas and the Republican party want to prevent ranked-choice voting from being used in the 2020 presidential election.

To do that, they will need to submit 63,067 signatures of registered Maine voters before the 90th day after the end of the current legislative session to get the people's veto on the ballot.

Lawmakers approved a bill allowing Mainers to use ranked-choice voting in presidential elections on Aug. 26 last year. It went into effect 10 days later, without the signature of Gov. Janet Mills.

Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank all candidates on the ballot. If no candidate gets a majority of first-round votes, last-place candidates are eliminated.

Anyone who ranked the last-place candidate first will then have their second-choice counted instead.

Once ranked-choice tabulation is triggered, it continues until all rounds have been tallied, assuring the winner has a majority of votes.

Maine was the first state to use ranked-choice voting in the U.S. Senate and House races in November 2018. As it stands, ranked-choice will be used for the presidential election in November, but not for primaries this March.