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Nick Weiss is the chairman of the Maine Federation of College Republicans and the Thomas College Republicans. His views are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of those organizations.
Two months ago, Maine’s three constitutional officers were elected by the Legislature. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Attorney General Aaron Frey were both reelected for two-year terms, Joe Perry was elected state treasurer for a two-year term, and Matt Dunlap was reelected for a four-year term as state auditor, a statutory officer position.
Over the last couple of years, some of these constitutional officers have been involved in controversy. In 2023, Secretary of State Bellows tried to remove Donald Trump from the ballot in Maine. Attorney General Frey failed to publicly disclose a personal relationship with an individual he supervised. In 2021, Dunlap was forced to leave the position as state auditor as he did not obtain the required certifications needed for that office in the nine month period he was allotted. Maine voters should have gotten the opportunity to consider these concerns at the ballot box.
Maine’s system of electing these officers is unique: the Legislature decides these officers. In reality, the party with the majority of legislative seats in both chambers combined gets to elect these individuals. Maine voters get two indirect votes for these offices: their state representative and their state senator.
It’s time to change that. I believe Maine people should get to directly elect both the constitutional officers and the state auditor, specifically, by plurality voting, not ranked-choice voting. The system of the Legislature of electing these officers is outdated, ineffective, and quite frankly, undemocratic.
One issue is that the election of these officers by the Legislature can leave Maine citizens unrepresented in Augusta. When Bellows was elected secretary of state in December 2020, she had just been reelected by the voters of state Senate District 14. The approximately 38,000 residents in that district went unrepresented in Augusta until the following March. The same issue occurred in Bangor this year, where Joe Perry’s former House seat is now vacant due to his election as state treasurer.
I hope the Legislature will take the time to consider the following proposal for these officers: Have the constitutional officers and the state auditor elected in off-year elections. This would likely increase the voter participation in those elections and would allow Mainers to not be even more overwhelmed with campaigning during mid-term and presidential election years.
To the Democrats who are opposed to sending this to the voters: If you believe your candidates are the most qualified to hold the constitutional and statutory officer positions, let the voters validate that choice. It’s really that simple. I offer my sincere thanks to the Republicans who bring this issue back up in the Legislature each session. It’s an important one to consider.
To the Maine Legislature: It’s time to make this long, overdue change a reality. Send this constitutional amendment to the voters now.
