An Act to Provide for Voters Expressing Preferences in Ranked-choice Voting
Maine Legislature, Session 131, LD 1594
Committee: Veterans and Legal Affairs
Sponsors: GROHOSKI
Amends: 21-A MRSA §723-A

Legislative Document
No. 1594
S.P. 625
In Senate, April 11, 2023
An Act to Provide for Voters Expressing Preferences in Ranked-
choice Voting
Reference to the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs suggested and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator GROHOSKI of Hancock.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§1, ¶F, as amended by PL 2019, c. 320, §9, is 
further amended to read:
F.  "Last-place candidate" means the candidate with the fewest votes preferences in a 
round of the ranked-choice voting count.
Sec. 2.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§1, ¶G, as amended by PL 2019, c. 320, §9, is 
further amended to read:
G.  "Mathematically impossible to be elected," with respect to a candidate, means 
either:
(1)  The candidate cannot be elected because the candidate's vote preference total 
in a round of the ranked-choice voting count plus all votes preferences that could 
possibly be transferred to the candidate in future rounds from candidates with fewer 
votes preferences or an equal number of votes preferences would not be enough to 
surpass the candidate with the next-higher vote preference total in the round; or
(2)  The candidate has a lower vote preference total than a candidate described in 
subparagraph (1).
Sec. 3.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§1, ¶H-2 is enacted to read:
H-2.  "Preference" means a voter's expression of a ranking on any given round.
Sec. 4.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§1, ¶J, as amended by PL 2019, c. 320, §11, is 
further amended to read:
J.  "Round" means an instance of the sequence of vote counting steps to count 
preferences established in subsection 2 and in rules adopted by the Secretary of State.
Sec. 5.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§1, ¶L is enacted to read:
L.  "Vote" means the complete and undivided expression of all preferences signified 
by a voter in one contest on the ballot.
Sec. 6.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§2, as amended by PL 2019, c. 320, §12, is 
further amended to read:
2.  Procedures.  Except as provided in subsections 3 and 4, the following procedures 
are used to determine the winner of an election determined by ranked-choice voting.  The 
ranked‑choice voting count must proceed in rounds.  In each round, the number of votes 
preferences for each continuing candidate must be counted.  Each continuing ballot counts 
as one vote preference for its highest-ranked continuing candidate for that round.  
Exhausted ballots are not counted for any continuing candidate.  The round then ends with 
one of the following 2 potential outcomes.
A.  If there are 2 or fewer continuing candidates, the candidate with the most votes 
preferences is declared the winner of the election.
B.  If there are more than 2 continuing candidates, the last-place candidate is defeated 
and a new round begins.
Sec. 7.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§3, as amended by PL 2019, c. 320, §13, is 
further amended to read:
3.  Ties.  A tie under this section between last-place candidates in any round must be 
decided by lot, and the candidate chosen by lot is defeated.  The result of the tie resolution 
must be recorded and reused in the event of a recount.  A tie between candidates for the 
most votes preferences in the final round must be decided as provided in section 732.
Sec. 8.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§3-A is enacted to read:
3-A.  Returns; vote total.  On a ranked-choice ballot, a vote is not returned until all 
the preferences have been considered or the tabulation process in this section demonstrates 
that the outcome does not depend on considering additional preferences. When tabulating 
the vote total in any contest, the number of preferences after that candidate's final round of 
tabulation is deemed that candidate's vote total.
Sec. 9.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§5, as amended by PL 2017, c. 316, §9, is further 
amended to read:
5.  Effect on rights of political parties.  For all statutory and constitutional provisions 
in the State pertaining to the rights of political parties, the number of votes cast for a party's 
candidate for an office determined by ranked-choice voting is the number of votes 
preferences credited to that candidate after the initial counting in the first round described 
in subsection 2.
Sec. 10.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§5-B, as amended by PL 2021, c. 273, §11, is 
further amended to read:
5-B.  Presidential primary elections; selection of delegates.  Notwithstanding any 
provision of this section to the contrary, for presidential primary elections, batch 
elimination may not be used for any candidates with more than 100 votes preferences, 
tabulation must continue until only 2 continuing candidates remain, separate tabulations 
must be conducted statewide and for each congressional district and selection and 
allocation of delegates to a party's national presidential nominating convention must be in 
accordance with any reasonable procedures established at the state party convention.
Sec. 11.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§5-B, as amended by PL 2021, c. 750, §11 and 
affected by §14, is further amended to read:
5-B.  Presidential primary elections; selection of delegates.  Notwithstanding any 
provision of this section to the contrary, for presidential primary elections, batch 
elimination may not be used for any candidates with more than 100 votes preferences, 
tabulation must continue until only 2 continuing candidates remain, separate tabulations 
must be conducted statewide and for each congressional district and selection and 
allocation of delegates to a party's national presidential nominating convention must be in 
accordance with any reasonable procedures established at the state party convention, except 
that unenrolled voters who participate in the party's primary election must be considered 
members of the party for purposes of allocating delegates.
Sec. 12.  21-A MRSA §723-A, sub-§5-C is enacted to read:
5-C.  Construction.  This section must be liberally construed to effectuate the 
legislative purpose of capturing a voter's full expression of preferences in ranked-choice 
voting contests where 3 or more candidates appear; any single preference may not be 
considered the voter's vote for the purpose of determining the election winner unless the 
voter has not expressed a preference for another continuing candidate. The Legislature 
finds and declares that the complete and undivided expression of all preferences by a voter 
is the only valid expression of the voter's vote in any contest and that a single preference 
ranking alone may not validly be considered the voter's vote unless that voter has not 
expressed a preference for another continuing candidate.
Sec. 13.  Effective date. That section of this Act that amends the Maine Revised 
Statutes, Title 21-A, section 723-A, subsection 5-B, as amended by Public Law 2021, 
chapter 750, section 11 and affected by section 14, takes effect January 1, 2024.
SUMMARY
This bill amends the ranked-choice voting law by replacing "votes" when done as part 
of the ranking with "preference"; the purpose of this change is to clarify that the voter is 
expressing a preference when using ranked-choice voting, as opposed to voting in each 
round.  The bill defines "vote" as the final expression of all the preferences made by a voter 
in one election and establishes that the number of preferences after a candidate's final round 
is deemed to be that candidate's vote total.  A vote is not considered returned until all the 
preferences have been considered or further consideration would not make a difference in 
the outcome.
Finally, the bill requires the ranked-choice voting law to be liberally construed.