Maine Senate passes ranked-choice voting for March presidential primaries

[jpak]

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/08/26/maine-senate-passes-ranked-choice-voting-for-march-presidential-primaries/comments/

AUGUSTA — The state Senate gave final approval Monday to a bill that would allow Mainers to use ranked-choice voting during the presidential primaries in March.

It was unclear heading into Monday’s special session whether the Senate would take up the bill to allow voters to rank candidates when they head to the polls on March 3 to participate in the Super Tuesday presidential primary elections.

But after Republicans blocked three of the four bond packages that were the central focus of Monday’s session, Democratic Senate President Troy Jackson revived his ranked-choice voting bill and put it to a vote just before 6 p.m.

The bill passed on a largely party-line vote of 20-12 and is now headed to Gov. Janet Mills, who has not signaled how she will respond. Mills won the Democratic nomination for governor in June 2018 following the nation’s first use of ranked-choice voting to decide a statewide election.

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