Good morning from Augusta, where Jiminy Cricket, Thursday was quite a day at the State House.
In the House of Representatives, Republicans lined up to rail against the citizen-initiated bill to fund home care for all Mainers, causing a number of Democrats to walk out. In a rare hearing regarding ballot access petitions that involved signatures from dead people, a witness told an attorney “don’t be a jerk.” And of course, there was the bombshell news developing throughout the day that due to a glitch in existing law, ranked-choice voting in this June’s primary election — or ever — might be in peril. Here’s. Our. Soundtrack.
The ranked-choice voting confusion is far from over. Because two clauses in the law contradict each other regarding whether primary elections should be decided by a plurality — which is how it works now — or a majority — which is how ranked-choice voting is supposed to work — the Legislature or the courts need to step in to fix the problem. If not, according to Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, there will be fertile ground for a legal challenge from one or more of the losers after the June primary.
Fingers are pointing in previously unlikely directions. It’s nothing new to see opposing candidates in the same race attack each other, but when they’re from the same party, the rancor is usually muted. That wasn’t the case Thursday. Former House Speaker Mark Eves, who is vying for the Democratic nomination in the gubernatorial race, eviscerated Attorney General Janet Mills, who is also running in the Democratic primary. Eves and Mills are arguably among the front-runners. In a statement, Eves called Mills a “powerful insider conspiring to ignore the will of the people” and “brazenly political” with “such a conflict of interest that you’d roll your eyes if you saw it on House of Cards.”
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Maine candidates pounce to score points from ranked-choice voting chaos,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Christopher Cousins, please follow this link to the BDN online.
