The Democrats just keep coming up with new ways to win elections without the voters. Nowhere is this more apparent than Maine. While it’s true that California Democrats used a form of ballot harvesting that is illegal in 49 states, in Maine, you no longer have to get the most votes to win.
Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME-02) received 2,632 more votes than Democrat Jared Golden, yet the Democratic Secretary of State declared Golden the winner thanks to a new voting gimmick called the “rank voting” system. The candidates are ranked 1 through however many candidates there are in the race and each position is assigned points and the one with the most points win, even if they have fewer votes.
There is a recount but it can’t change the outcome and will take four weeks. There is a court challenge pending, but don’t count on it.
Secretary of State Dunlap, a Democrat, declared Democrat Jared Golden the winner of the election on November 15, despite the fact that Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME-02) received 2,632 more votes than Golden on election day, a consequence of the state’s implementation of a controversial “rank voting” system.
“Attorneys for U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin and U.S. Rep.-elect Jared Golden argued in federal court Wednesday about the constitutionality of Maine’s ranked-choice voting law, the election process that propelled Golden to a victory over the two-term incumbent Poliquin in November,” the Portland Press Herald reported, adding:
Poliquin’s lawyers are asking U.S. District Judge Lance Walker to rule that the law, passed by voters in November 2016 and affirmed with a citizens’ veto vote in June, violates the U.S. Constitution. They are arguing that Poliquin should either be declared the winner based on the fact he won the plurality of votes in the first round of counting or that there should be a special election, or runoff, between Golden, a Democrat, and Poliquin, a Republican.