AUGUSTA, Maine -- Ballots with ranked-choice voting are being printed up in Maine for use on November 3, and that could have an outsize impact on who becomes president.
On Tuesday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court put on hold the GOP backed "people's veto" of a law that allows ranked-choice voting in presidential contests.
John Brautigam, legal counsel for the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Maine, says voters now will be allowed to mark their choices in order of preference.
"It minimizes the problem where a candidate with less than 50% of the vote is able to be elected even though a majority of voters might have opposed that candidate," Brautigam said.
In ranked-choice voting, if no candidate gets a majority, the second-choice votes of the lowest-ranked candidate get redistributed. This avoids runoff elections and lets people vote for third-party candidates without worrying it will end up benefiting the candidate they oppose.
There are multiple scenarios where the presidential election could come down to one vote in the Electoral College.
Maine's Second Congressional District went for Trump in 2016, when there were six third-party candidates and no ranked-choice voting. Brautigam says the Second District could end up being the tiebreaker in 2020.
"It could really come down to one electoral vote," Brautigam said. "And the use of ranked-choice voting would help to make sure that whoever won that electoral vote in Maine's Second Congressional District had a true majority support of the voters."
Two weeks ago, a Superior Court judge ruled the "people's veto" initiative had enough valid signatures to make it onto the ballot, which would have prevented the use of ranked-choice voting for president in this election.
This week's clarification put the initiative on hold. The Republican Party of Maine, in a statement, noted the case is still active, so the Supreme Judicial Court could issue further rulings before the election.
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Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.
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Recent Supreme Court rulings on air pollution are affecting Virginia and the nation.
Climate advocates said the court overstepped its bounds in ruling the Environmental Protection Agency's Good Neighbor Rule was improperly enacted and repealing the so-called "Chevron deference." Without it, judges have to rule on ambiguous regulatory laws with no agency expertise.
Craig Segall, vice president of the advocacy group Evergreen Action, said the court is diminishing the capacity of Virginia's federal climate partners like the EPA.
"By creating room to attack, for instance, carbon standards for power plants federally, that Virginia might want to implement," Segall outlined. "Or by making it harder for U.S. EPA to move us toward electric vehicles that would create jobs in Virginia and that would, you know, clean up the air, especially in Northern Virginia where it's so congested."
He added it creates an opportunity for states to lead on climate action. But partisan opinions on climate change vary across the country. In Virginia, it means mixed efforts from utility companies and lawmakers. Dominion Energy is developing offshore wind, but it is also pressing on with a natural gas plant residents vehemently oppose.
The rulings, coupled with decisions on presidential immunity and what constitutes bribery have eroded the Supreme Court's perception of impartiality. Polls show most Americans across party lines feel the Court puts political ideology first.
Quentin Scott, federal policy director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said it opens the floodgates to government corruption.
"We can't have this blatant, open corruption or it will diminish our effectiveness of government and enforcement of some very important rules related to pollution," Scott asserted.
He stressed climate action will be a top ballot priority along with preserving democracy. Some of his group's top issues for the next presidency will be improving grid interconnection of clean energy projects and approving certain reforms for the Supreme Court.
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Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, delivered a powerful message in Indianapolis.
Speaking at a Zeta Phi Beta Sorority event, just days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her candidacy, Harris emphasized her dedication to affordable healthcare, student debt relief, and gun control measures, including universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.
She also hammered home that, if she is elected president, she would restore a woman's right to choose an abortion.
"When I am President of the United States and when Congress passes a law to restore those freedoms, I will sign it into law," Harris said. "We are not playing around."
Harris expressed her belief that the current administration has made progress toward a better future by implementing such initiatives as capping insulin prices for more affordable healthcare, passing the Child Tax Credit, and forgiving student loan debt for millions of Americans.
GOP Vice-Presidential nominee J.D. Vance was also in Indiana Wednesday. He spoke at a private event in Ft. Wayne.
Criticizing Project 2025, a conservative plan drafted by the Heritage Foundation, Harris warned it would take the country backward in the areas of medical freedom and education.
"This represents an outright attack on our children, our family, and our future. These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back. We are not going back," she said.
Harris called for unity in defending freedom and stated there are two different visions for the country. Her vision, she said, looks to the future; the other, she said, looks to the past. Harris urged the community to mobilize and vote, stressing the significance of this moment in shaping the nation's future.
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A sweeping conservative plan to shape a possible second Donald Trump presidency is making headlines, even as the GOP candidate claims to know little about it.
"Project 2025" from the conservative Heritage Foundation includes standard conservative ideas, such as slashing regulations, but also firing thousands of civil servants, dismantling the Department of Education and giving more power to the states.
David Nevins, co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder of the Bridge Alliance, a network of organizations working to promote healthy self-governance, has enlisted experts to share their thoughts on each of Project 2025's 30 sections.
"The cross-partisan approach that we believe in is, in some cases, the federal government can do certain things more effectively - in some cases not as effectively - and that's the discussion we need to have as a nation," Nevins said.
Alarming to New Mexico conservationists, Project 2025 proposes slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and replacing carbon-reduction goals with efforts to increase energy production and energy security.
Nevins believes many on the far right want to "turn back the clock" and erase societal changes that have occurred in the last 20 to 30 years. He said people can be afraid of change - especially when things are moving fast - but thinks Project 2025 represents a lack of open-mindedness rather than seeking common ground to take democracy to its next level.
"The reality of America is that we are a diverse country, in terms of racial, ethnic, sexual preferences, religion - that is the reality. And if we're going to live into the pluralistic dream of our founding fathers and mothers, we have to learn to make that work," he explained.
While Trump has denied knowing much about Project 2025, nearly two-thirds of the authors behind the plan served in his former administration.
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