Election experts say Poliquin’s constitutional challenge to ranked-choice voting unlikely to prevail

Legal experts and constitutional scholars interviewed by the Press Herald mostly agree that a lawsuit filed Tuesday challenging Maine’s ranked-choice voting law is unlikely to prevail.

Rep. Bruce Poliquin, along with three other Maine residents, sued Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap in federal court, claiming that ranked-choice voting violates the U.S. Constitution. Lawyers for the plaintiffs also filed a motion for preliminary injunction and a request for a temporary restraining order, seeking to halt the processing of ballots in the 2nd Congressional District race.

Mark Gaber, senior legal counsel for the Washington D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center, called the lawsuit “frivolous.”“Courts have not questioned the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting, and indeed have cited it as a lawful form of voting,” he said.

Read the full article