Attorney: Keeping Max Linn off ballot would ‘totally destroy’ Maine nominating process

6 years ago

AUGUSTA, Maine — An attorney for disqualified Republican U.S. Senate candidate Max Linn on Monday asked Maine’s high court to put him back on the June primary ballot, saying not doing so could “totally destroy” the state’s nominating process.

Linn, a retired financial planner from Bar Harbor, was removed from the ballot in April after a judge agreed with his primary opponent, state Sen. Eric Brakey, and Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap that “fraud” tainted signatures that Linn submitted to get on the ballot.

It was the latest move in a drawn-out series of challenges to Linn’s ballot status. In Maine, statewide candidates must collect 2,000 signatures from registered party voters, and by April, Linn was twice allowed on the ballot by Dunlap despite having 230 signatures invalidated.

But Dunlap knocked off 28 more signatures and Maine Superior Court Justice William Stokes sided with Brakey’s campaign after a second April hearing before the secretary of state’s office on his petitions. Linn’s campaign agreed that dozens of nominating signatures were fraudulent and purportedly came from people who died or said that they hadn’t signed for Linn.

The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Attorney: Keeping Max Linn off ballot would ‘totally destroy’ Maine nominating process,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writerMichael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.