Politics
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Democratic lawmakers in Maine alongside ranked-choice voting advocates are fighting a proposal by the national party that would restrict the process in 2028’s presidential primaries.
The Democratic National Committee in a little more than two weeks will decide on a proposed rule change that would bar ranked-choice tabulation for delegate allocation. Maine lawmakers who embraced the voting system years ago say the change could keep the state’s delegates from being seated at the 2028 convention.
“Out-of-state political operatives have no business telling the Maine people how to vote, limiting our choices, or denying voters the voice and representation they deserve,” state Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, said in a statement.
The proposal forces a confrontation between Maine Democrats who have expanded ranked-choice voting and the unpopular national party, which has faced criticism over the last two presidential cycles on a proposed primary calendar shakeup that would remove New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation status and a wide funding gap with the Republican Party.
The divide also comes about three months before midterm elections, framed in part by clashes over voting rights, redistricting and election integrity, that will determine 36 gubernatorial races and control of Congress, including Maine’s crucial U.S. Senate race.
The DNC says ranked-choice voting is incompatible with the party’s delegate allocation process, but that its new rules will include a carveout for states like Maine where it is on the books. If the proposal goes into effect along with DNC rules after a full meeting on Aug. 15, only the first round will be considered for delegate allocation purposes.
The proposal mirrors the Republican National Committee’s ranked-choice rules adopted at the GOP’s 2024 convention, which say that “any use of ranked-choice voting shall be allocated based on the initial round of balloting and not any subsequent round.”
Maine was the first to adopt ranked-choice voting in presidential elections in 2020, expanding its use to presidential primaries four years later. Several other states have used a form of the method in their internal Democratic nominating processes.
The electoral reform group FairVote said state parties using ranked-choice voting in presidential primaries “were neither notified that this was being considered nor given the opportunity to share their experiences and expertise” with the party’s rules committee. The DNC hasn’t previously stepped in to bar states from using a ranked ballot, the group said.
Both the DNC and the Maine Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
The rule change was proposed by rules committee member Frank Leone, who’s held several roles with the Virginia Democrats and DNC. He said in a May meeting that he does not support ranked-choice voting broadly. Leone said there may be good applications of the system, but not in the party’s process to pick delegates.
He described Maine’s statute as problematic, noting the party requires candidates to meet a 15% threshold drawing the line “between candidates who are serious … and those who are not,” while the first round in a ranked-choice system does not allow for such a threshold. Ranked-choice rounds also whittle candidates down to two, but the party allows up to seven candidates to receive delegates under the Democrats’ proportional allocation system.
The 15% threshold has been easily addressed in other states’ ranked-choice voting rounds by eliminating candidates and stopping once all are above it, Will Mantell, a spokesperson for FairVote, retorted. The issue did not arise in Maine in 2024 because Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump easily won their primaries over nominal opposition.
The primaries in two years are likely to be different with Trump barred from running again and no Democrat consolidating their field. The prediction market Kalshi has 12 Democrats holding between 2% and 16% chances to win the nomination in two years.
Members of the rules committee have been divided on the move, with some saying it would provide clarity to states and ranked-choice supporters arguing it would be at odds with voters’ and lawmakers’ choices at the state level.
Former state Rep. Kyle Bailey of Gorham, who ran the 2016 referendum campaign that established Maine’s first-in-the-nation ranked-choice voting system, said in a statement that the voting process has increased civility and turnout in party primaries.
“Voters should pick winners and losers, not have DNC superdelegates rig the rules to deny more choice and more voice to primary voters,” he said.