Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine isn’t giving up his seat to Democrat Jared Golden, who was declared the winner in their midterm contest, without a fight.
In a motion filed Tuesday, Poliquin amended an existing lawsuit previously filed challenging the constitutionality of Maine’s ranked-choice voting. The lawsuit in its original form requested a preliminary injunction to delay certification of election results, and with the amendment it now calls for a new election if the injunction is not granted.
“In the alternative to the preliminary and permanent injunction requested above, (we request) an order that a new election be held for U.S. Representative from Maine’s Second Congressional District ‘to remedy [the] broad-gauged unfairness’ that implementation of the RCV Act injected into the November 6 general election,” the complaint says.
Maine approved ranked-choice voting as part of a 2016 referendum. The process requires voters to list candidates in order of preference. Poliquin received approximately 2,000 more votes than Golden but failed to receive a majority of the votes, prompting a second tabulation process so that votes for independent candidates would go toward voters’ second picks.
Poliquin warned earlier this month that he would move forward with a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting.
“It is now officially clear I won the constitutional ‘one-person, one-vote’ first choice election on Election Day that has been used in Maine for more than one hundred years. We will proceed with our constitutional concerns about the rank vote algorithm,” Poliquin said in a statement.
