The Maine Supreme Court ruled on April 6 that ranked-choice voting in elections for governor and the state legislature would violate the state constitution.

Ranked-choice voting was approved by Maine voters in 2016. The system is in place for presidential elections, as well as voting for the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

In June 2025, the Maine legislature passed a law to extend ranked-choice voting to elections for governor and the state Senate and House of Representatives.

However, Maine Gov. Janet Mills questioned the law’s constitutionality. The Maine Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 1.

The justices noted that the state constitution’s election process is based on “votes” rather than “rankings.”

“For each of the offices at issue here, a single vote is taken from each voter, with the votes sorted, counted, and declared once and then submitted by each municipality to the Secretary of State,” they wrote.

The justices discussed the history of elections in Maine. In the 1800s, the constitution called for a “majority decision,” which sometimes resulted in elections with no winner.

“These serious problems led to an amendment of the Maine Constitution to provide for all three offices to be elected by a plurality of votes and to eliminate the alternatives to a majority vote previously included in the Constitution,” the justices stated.