B&I Lawyers Successfully Defend Congressional Candidate in Unprecedented Election Case

Partner Peter Brann and associates Mike Carey and Eamonn Hart successfully defended Jared Golden, the Democratic candidate in Maine’s Second Congressional District, in the first ever congressional general election conducted using ranked choice voting. Carey and Hart represented Golden in the tabulation process conducted by Maine’s Secretary of State. Brann represents Golden in the federal court challenge, filing a brief and arguing against a temporary restraining order to stop the vote count within 24 hours after the motion was filed. The court denied the TRO motion a day later. Maine’s Secretary of State then completed the ranked choice voting count, and declared Golden the winner by a narrow margin over incumbent Congressman Bruce Poliquin. Poliquin may continue his challenge, but so far, Brann & Isaacson lawyers, working with lawyers from Drummond Woodsum and Perkins Coie, have won a significant legal victory involving a first-in-the-nation method of conducting congressional elections, enabling their client to win a closely-fought election.