(NEWS CENTER Maine) -- A federal judge plans to hear concerns from Congressman Bruce Poliquin and his lawyers on December 5 regarding the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting and why they believe that he should be declared the winner of Maine's second congressional district.
Rep.-elect Jared Golden found out Thursday, along with the rest of the state, that he was the apparent winner of the November 6 election after two rounds of ranked-choice voting gave him the majority.
Judge Lance Walker is scheduled to hear the preliminary injunction at 10 a.m. in Bangor. Poliquin is seeking for the judge to declare ranked-choice voting unconstitutional and declare him the winner of the Nov. 6 election.
Bruce Poliquin and his staff said Thursday they plan to "proceed with our constitutional concerns about the rank vote algorithm."
Before the election results were announced Tuesday, the same judge denied Poliquin and his lawyers' request for a temporary restraining order to stop the ranked-choice voting process. Poliquin's team claimed again that the process was unconstitutional.
In the country's first race decided by ranked-choice voting, people's second and third choices played a crucial role. Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said it is too early to tell if all of those voters ranked second and third places choices, but enough did to impact the election -- swinging representative-elect Jared Golden, who trailed on Election Night, to the majority winner.
Despite legal challenges at the federal level, Secretary Dunlap believes the results will stand under the Maine constitution.
"States occupy the field in the conduct of elections and the federal government has left this to the states and the people of the state of Maine have embraced ranked-choice voting and under that general assumption, I think the result will stand," said Sec. Dunlap.
"I think we say a very strong statement today," Golden said in a press conference after the results were announced Thursday. "It doesn't look like the judge is likely to believe that there are constitutional grounds for the case to proceed."
Judge Lance Walker denied Poliquin's lawyers motion to stop the process Thursday, saying he felt they were unlikely to win the case. He wrote" no constitutional infirmity appears likely," and that he "was not persuaded that the U.S. Constitution compels the Court to interfere" with ranked-choice voting.