Judge rules against GOP names on ballot

AUGUSTA — A Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that the names of two Republican House candidates cannot appear on the November ballot, leaving the GOP without nominees in 27 of the 151 Maine House districts.

In issuing his ruling, Justice Donald Alexander agreed with Maine’s secretary of state, who had ruled that Harry Ingalls of Biddeford and Paul Shedd of Enfield could not be listed as party nominees because they had not been enrolled as Republicans by the state’s April 1 deadline.

Secretary G. William Diamond said after Alexander issued his ruling that he believed the state’s requirement “was obvious from Day One.”

Even with Thursday’s decision, Ingalls and Shedd can still seek House seats this fall, but they must be write-in candidates if they run.

“I think there may be a strong possibility that they’ll run,” said House Minority Leader Mary Clark Webster, R-Cape Elizabeth.

Democrats, who currently control the House by a 98-52 margin, lack official party nominees in seven districts this November.

Webster said the Republicans do not plan to appeal Alexander’s ruling. She said Republicans believed that ambiguity in the elections law permitted candidates to register as party members until the time of the June primary.

Shedd, a former Democrat, had enrolled as a Republican on June 10, two days before this spring’s primary. Ingalls had enrolled in May, according to Assistant Secretary of State William Stokes.