Poliquin sues in federal court to stop ranked-choice count

[jpak]

Source: Portland Press Herald

AUGUSTA – Republican 2nd District Congressman Bruce Poliquin filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Maine’s Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap in an attempt to stop a tabulation of ranked-choice ballots in his race against Democratic challenger Jared Golden.

The suit filed in federal court in Bangor is asking for an injunction against Dunlap to stop what would be the first congressional race in the nation to be decided through ranked-choice voting. Neither Poliquin nor Golden secured a majority of the vote in the first round of counting, pushing the tabulation to voters’ second choices in an attempt to determine which candidate has the support of more than 50 percent of voters.

Maine voters have approved the process twice at the ballot box.

Poliquin’s suit claims the use of ranked-choice voting violates the U.S. Constitution because the document “sets a plurality vote as the qualification for election” to Congress.

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Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2018/11/13/poliquin-campaign-sues-in-federal-court-to-stop-ranked-choice-count/

[DRoseDARs]

2. "a plurality vote" is literally what ranked-choice voting IS, you pleb.

The winner needs at a minimum "50 percent plus 1" votes to be declared the winner. If everyone failed to achieve a simple majority, rank-choice kicks in. The votes from the bottom candidate are reapportioned based on their 2nd choice, 3rd, 4th and so on, until someone achieves "50%+1" and thus represents the voting will of a plurality of the electorate.

It would be amusing if the judge heard the arguments, and then explained how rank-choice works and summarily dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, scolding Poliquin for wasting the court's time.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Plurality vote is whoever receives the most votes. Doesn't have to be 50% +1.

Majority is 50% plus 1.

Either way the Constitution doesn't specify plurality or majority. The states decide.

[DRoseDARs]

6. I stand corrected by dictionary.

My (mis)understanding comes from "E pluribus unum." Huh.

[LiberalFighter]

3. I don't like rank choice method but don't see anything in U.S. Constitution that prohibits it.

Article I Section 4 specifies

The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.

[DRoseDARs]

7. He's going off of Maine's state const. ... and suing in federal court instead of the state supreme?

https://www.maine.gov/legis/const/

House A4 Part 1 section 5
Senate A4 Part 2 section 4

He's trying to have his cake and eat yours too. He's applying state-level rules on electing state-level legislators to state-level office to his federal-level congressional run.

I still maintain the judge needs to laugh him out of court and dismiss the case with prejudice.

[LBM20]

9. What's not to like? It is just a runoff voting system to make sure the winner is a real winner.

And not "winning" just because of vote splitting. We need majority rule and not minority rule. We had to suffer with that shitbag LePage for 8 years because he only won due to the vote being split.

And it has been upheld in court already.

[malthaussen]

5. Don't see how a legitimate Court could rule this unconstitutional...

... but then, we don't have a legitimate court system anymore.

However, the Constitution does specify that Congress can poke its nose in. Now, whether or not they could do so retroactively is a fun question.

-- Mal

[LBM20]

8. Poliquin, aka "Bathroom Bruce" (he hides from reporters in bathrooms), is a baby and will LOSE.

Both federal and state courts have already ruled on this on favor of it. Ranked Choice Voting is just a runoff voting system. States get to choose their election processes. If they ruled against RCV it would be violating multiple precedents and would tell many states, including many red states, that their runoff voting processes are all illegal. Not gonna happen.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

10. Poliquin is a whiner baby. Only reason he says it is unfair is because he is going to lose.

But Drew Penrose, Fair Vote’s law and policy director, said Tuesday that “even if a court were inclined to side with Poliquin, it would struggle to identify a remedy” since all four candidates “campaigned in a ranked-choice voting election and the voters ranked their choices according to the rules in place.”

“It would be unfair to everyone involved to declare Poliquin the victor based only on first choices,” he said.

Breed said the people in the district voted with ranked-choice options in mind.

“Any attempt by Bruce Poliquin to change the rules after votes have already been cast is an affront to the law and to the people of Maine,” Breed said.

“If Rep. Poliquin’s concerns were anything other than in self-interest, he should have filed this lawsuit before votes were cast, or when the Maine Republican Party challenged Maine’s election system last year.”

Amy Fried, chairwoman of the Political Science Department at the University of Maine, said that during the campaign “Poliquin recognized the system and provided guidance on how his backers should vote.”

“He did not say he considered it unconstitutional or that he would sue after the election to prevent voters even finding out who won according to the election law in place last June and this November,”Fried said.

Poliquin was the only one of the four candidates during the campaign who refused to say he would abide by the outcome of the ranked-choice vote. Golden said all along he would accept the final vote whether he won or lost.


http://www.sunjournal.com/poliquin-heads-to-court-wednesday-to-try-to-stop-vote-count/?fbclid=IwAR3J7OyoYSDzHcbX37ZQsoU-PmeaB5y47nhqzYWl5uZn3SKMlIcSOGi1XJs