Judge: Ranked-choice voting ready for Maine's June elections

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A Superior Court judge is ordering Maine to implement ranked-choice voting for June primary elections.

Justice Michaela Murphy had expressed reservations about being asked to step in, but she ruled Wednesday that the Secretary of State's Office must move forward with implementing the will of state voters.

Ranked choice proponents asked the judge to intervene after Secretary of State Michael Dunlap announced that a legal technicality needs to be fixed to protect the state from litigation.

Any fix faces legislative hurdles.

Mainers approved the new voting concept in a statewide referendum in November 2016 but state lawmakers delayed its implementation. More than 62,000 petitions were collected to temporarily halt the legislative delay pending a second statewide vote June 12.