Abstract
In 2018, Maine became the first state in the nation to use ranked choice voting in statewide and congressional elections. In a decentralized system of election administration local election officials play an important role in implementing new voting rules. We examine the implementation of ranked choice voting based on a survey sent to municipal clerks in Maine. The survey asked local officials about their experience with ranked choice voting, including its impact on election costs, administrative burden, poll worker training, and voter education. We test hypotheses derived from policy implementation theory in assessing election officials’ evaluations of ranked choice voting. In preliminary results, we find that most municipal clerks in our sample are not enthusiastic about implementing ranked choice voting and do not want to continue its use in Maine. In addition, there are strong partisan divisions, with Democratic clerks offering much more positive assessments of ranked choice voting than Republican clerks.