Maine Democrats Fight DNC Rule Risking 2028 Convention Seats
A proposed DNC rule would count only first-round votes for delegates, and Maine lawmakers warn it could cost the state its seat at the 2028 convention.
A push by the Democratic National Committee to stop counting ranked-choice results toward presidential delegate totals has drawn opposition from Maine's Democratic lawmakers and from ranked-choice voting advocates, the Bangor Daily News reported. State Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, a Portland Democrat, warned in a statement that the change could keep Maine's delegates from being seated at the 2028 convention, saying "out-of-state political operatives have no business telling the Maine people how to vote." The national party plans to decide the matter at a meeting on Aug. 15; the DNC says ranked-choice tabulation does not fit its delegate-allocation system but would carve out an exception for states such as Maine that already use it, counting only first-round results if the change takes effect. Maine adopted ranked-choice voting for presidential general elections in 2020 and extended it to presidential primaries four years later. FairVote, a group that promotes the voting method, said state parties running ranked-choice primaries were never notified about the proposal or given a chance to weigh in before it reached the DNC's rules committee. Neither the DNC nor the Maine Democratic Party responded when the newspaper sought comment.
This story was first reported by Bangor Daily News.
