Maine Republican who submitted bogus signatures loses bid to regain ballot status

6 years ago

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s high court upheld a ruling on Tuesday keeping Republican Max Linn out of the U.S. Senate primary in June, ending a campaign that was derailed by fraudulent nomination signatures that the one-time candidate admitted but never explained.

The decision from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court came just one day after oral arguments before the justices and concludes a drawn-out appeal process that state Sen. Eric Brakey — who is now alone in the primary — used to get Linn removed from the race.

Linn, a former third-party gubernatorial candidate in Florida who now lives in Bar Harbor, began his campaign at a Republican meeting in January as a pro-President Donald Trump hopeful. He adopted Trumpian rhetoric in his campaign, deriding “Cowardly Eric Brakey” at an April news conference as his ballot status was being questioned.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap initially qualified Linn for the ballot in March. He upheld that decision in early April following an appeal from Brakey’s campaign, which discovered several signatures on Linn’s nominating petitions that purportedly came from dead people or others who said they never signed for the candidate.

The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Maine Republican who submitted bogus signatures loses bid to regain ballot status,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.