Earlier this week, on May 23, 2017, Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state’s voter-approved ranked-choice voting system—due to be implemented next year—is unconstitutional. It was a decision influenced in so small part by the actions of civil war hero, Bowdoin College president and former state governor, Joshua Chamberlain, according to the Bangor Daily News.
The court’s decision mentions Chamberlain—a member of the Bowdoin class of 1852—three times, making particular reference of his role in “charge of the Augusta police force during a tense 12-day period in 1880, when the results of Maine’s gubernatorial and legislative elections were in doubt.”