Max Linn can’t be candidate for U.S. Senate, Maine’s top court rules

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court ruling that invalidated the candidacy of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Max Linn, a financial planner who lives in Bar Harbor.

Linn’s campaign appealed a decision by Kennebec County Superior Court Justice William Stokes, who ruled that Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap was correct in invalidating Linn’s candidacy because a large number of fraudulent voter signatures appeared on Linn’s nominating petitions.

The finding by the law court on Tuesday is the latest in a series of legal developments that started after the campaign of Eric Brakey challenged Linn’s nominating petition. The Brakey campaign had discovered the signatures of voters who were no longer alive. Brakey, a Republican state senator from Auburn, is now running unopposed in the primary to be his party’s nominee to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Brunswick independent and former Maine governor.

While Linn’s name will still appear on the June primary ballot, he is ineligible to be elected, based on the decision by Dunlap and backed by both Stokes and the state’s highest court.