[EM] Maine RCV

[Rob Lanphier]

Hi folks,

Interesting report by Sara Wolk on votingtheory.org:
https://www.votingtheory.org/forum/topic/606/rcv-found-unconstitutional-in-maine

In short: the Maine legislature decided to expand RCV/IRV beyond federal
offices to state and local offices, but worried about both a governor's
veto, and/or an overturn from Maine's high court (the "SJC" or "Supreme
Judicial Court").  So, rather than sending it to the governor (whose veto
could be for many reasons), they sent it to the SJC first.  The SJC said "*The
Maine Constitution, construed as a whole, treats a 'vote' as a single
choice, tallied by a municipality*"  That not only has implications for
RCV, but many other systems too.  A brief explainer with direct links the
SJC opinion and some key quotes from them is available on electowiki:
https://electowiki.org/wiki/Maine#2026_advisory_opinion

The "*tallied by a municipality*" caveat is interesting, since it implies
precinct summability is important to the SJC.

Thoughts?
Rob
p.s. my cursory investigation of this topic was in preparation for the
ElectoramaCall, which is happening in a few hours:
https://electowiki.org/wiki/ElectoramaCall
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