GOP rep sues over Maine’s new voting system

Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine) is among a group suing Maine over its new voting system, which prevented him from being declared the winner in his reelection bid last week.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Poliquin filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the state from using its new ranked-choice voting method to determine the winner in his race with Democrat Jared Golden.

{mosads}Poliquin believes he should be declared the winner of the race because he received the most first-place votes, but under the new voting system, additional rounds are required because neither he nor Golden won a majority of the votes. 

The new voting system allows voters to rank candidates from first to last. After the second choices of voters are counted, it’s possible Poliquin could be trailing Golden. 

Maine’s secretary of state has said he won’t stop the second round of voting despite Poliquin’s lawsuit, according to the AP.