Anna Kellar, executive director of Democracy Maine, speaks at the “Save Maine Absentee Voting” kick off rally on May 10 in Augusta. (Courtesy of Democracy Maine)
Democracy Maine Executive Director Anna Kellar is leaving the role after nearly eight years to serve as national organizing director for Rank the Vote, a nonprofit with the goal of adopting ranked-choice voting nationwide.
Kellar’s last day will be Sept. 12. Al Cleveland, the organizations’ advocacy director, will serve as interim executive director until a permanent replacement is selected.
In many ways, Kellar’s next role will continue the work they championed in Maine while leading Democracy Maine, which is a collaboration between nonpartisan organizations — the League of Women Voters of Maine, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections and Maine Students Vote — working to make government more equitable by improving elections, protecting and engaging voters.
During their tenure, Kellar successfully pushed for the adoption of ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates by preference, at multiple levels of office.
In November 2016, Maine voters approved ranked-choice voting for statewide elections for governor, state legislature and Congress — though applicability for some of those offices was later narrowed to only primaries — becoming the first state to do so. Kellar then led Democracy Maine in pushing for the Maine Legislature to expand the system to include presidential elections. At the municipal level, Kellar helped pass ranked-choice voting in Westbrook and expand it in Portland.
“In this new role, I will bring the values that I learned through my time at Democracy Maine and the League to a national reform effort, especially the power of ordinary people working together to make our communities better,” Kellar said in a statement announcing their resignation Wednesday. “I am excited to help other states and cities follow Maine’s lead and embrace election systems that increase the choices and power of the voters.”
Beyond ranked-choice voting, Democracy Maine under Kellar’s leadership supported other successful legislative efforts to expand voting rights, including automatic voter registration, online voter registration, ongoing absentee and protections for absentee voting and having semi-open primaries. Kellar also aided in creating the state’s first municipal clean elections system in Portland.
Democracy Maine also expanded during Kellar’s tenure, notably with the addition of Maine Students Vote, which is aimed at increasing election engagement and civic participation on college campuses and high schools across the state.
Jill Ward, the League’s and Democracy Maine’s board president, said in a statement that Kellar has positioned the organization well to “continue to lead the charge for a government truly of, by, and for everyday people.”
Such efforts this fall will be centered on defeating Question 1 on the upcoming November ballot to require voters to show photo identification at the polls and make other changes to state election law, including limiting absentee voting. Democracy Maine also plans to continue to try to expand ranked-choice voting for the 2026 general election.
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