Maine’s Marijuana Laws up in the Air as Lawmakers Vote to Rewrite Law

October 24, 2017
AggregatedNews
Maine
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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine lawmakers returned to Augusta and took steps to decide the future of two voter-approved laws, one that legalized recreational marijuana and the other that created a first-of-its-kind ranked voting system for political candidates.

Lawmakers on Monday voted to rewrite the state’s recreational marijuana law and delay a new voting system.

The so-called ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank their top candidate choices rather than just picking one. Maine’s highest court earlier this year issued a non-binding, advisory opinion saying the ranked-choice voting system is unconstitutional for some elections.

That opinion may have influenced lawmakers, who voted on Monday to delay implementing the new law until at least 2021. The law would be repealed at that time unless the Maine Constitution is amended to explicitly allow ranked-choice voting.

Both Republicans and some Democrats supported delaying the law, after Democrats and third-party lawmakers backed an unsuccessful push to keep the new system in place only for primaries and statewide races, such as for governor.

Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said implementing the new voting system for key 2018 races for governor and the Legislature would be doable but difficult, given the lack of guidance on key issues so far from lawmakers. [Read more at US News & World Report]

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