U.S. House GOP leader McCarthy assails ranked-choice voting in Maine

AUGUSTA — Ranked-choice voting remains a top target of Republicans from Augusta to Washington.

The GOP leader in the U.S. House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, cited the defeat of U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin in a ranked-choice race last year as a prime example of the way Democrats are allegedly manipulating elections “because they can’t win in a fair fight.”

It is an argument a number of Maine Republicans have also made in their unsuccessful quests to stamp out the voting method approved by Mainers in a 2016 referendum and endorsed at the polls again in 2018.

They have a handful of bills that would stymie or kill ranked-choice voting in the state in the unlikely event they are approved by a Legislature controlled by Democrats. Democrats, taking the opposite stance, have a couple of proposals on the table that would extend ranked-choice voting in Maine.

Read more: https://www.sunjournal.com/2019/04/01/house-gop-leader-kevin-mccarthy-assails-ranked-choice-voting-in-maine/