Maine Republican booted off the midterm ballot for faking signatures on his candidate filing petition

Maine's superior court recommended this week that GOP Senate candidate Max Linn be removed from the November ballot because there was "undisputed" fraud in his candidate filing petition.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Superior Court Justice William R. Stokes upheld the recommendation from Matt Dunlap, Maine's secretary of state, after he ruled that more than 250 signatures on Linn's petition were invalid. The report noted that in some instances, the candidate included signatures for "several" dead people and others who said they didn't sign the petition.

The ruling comes after more than a month of back-and-forth court filings that began when Linn's GOP primary challenger, state Sen. Eric Brakey, accused him of using fraudulent signatures on his petition. Following Brakey's accusation, a Linn supporter counter-claimed that the state senator's notary on some of his signatures was a felon — a charge the secretary of state dropped.

With the superior court's ruling, Linn is now disqualified from the state's Republican primary although his name will still appear on the ballot during the state's June primary. It leaves Brakey to be the assumed GOP nominee in a race that includes incumbent Sen. Angus King (I) and Democrat Zak Ringelstein.