A group of seven Republican legislators, headed by Rep. Richard Campbell (R-Orrington), is proposing a state constitutional amendment to change the way Senate seats are districted and give each county two senators.

The resolution, LD 316, would initiate proceedings for a constitutional amendment to reduce the number of state senators from 35 to 32 and give each county two senators.

The amendment has the potential to drastically shift the political landscape in Maine. Currently, the more liberal counties in southern Maine have far more Senate seats than more rural counties, with Cumberland County for instance allocated eight of the current 35 Senate seats.

Rep. Campbell said during the bill’s public hearing on Wednesday that, in addition to the 32 seats, there would be a mechanism to break the tie, although the resolution, as written, makes no mention of a potential tie-breaking vote.

When asked to elaborate on the extra tie-breaking vote by the committee, Campbell responded, “I’ll leave that to you.”

The proposed amendment would require redistricting starting in January 2026 to correspond with the counties, with the new number of senators going into effect in December of next year.

A proposed constitutional amendment, unlike standard bills, requires a 2/3 majority vote in the state Senate and House, and majority support from the Maine people in a referendum vote.

If the resolution passes through the legislature, Mainers will be asked, “Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to reduce the size of the Senate from no more than 35 members to 32 members by reapportioning senatorial districts to coincide with the counties of the State, effective December 2, 2026?”

The amendment would bring Maine’s Senate in line with the national Senate districting standards. Unlike House districts, determined by population, each state receives two Senators, no more and no less, regardless of population or size.

No one testified in favor of the Republican-led resolution.

Deputy Secretary of State Emily Cook spoke in opposition to the constitutional amendment.

“We oppose LD 316 as a matter of policy because it would give some Mainers considerably more representation in the Senate than others. The more than 300,000 Mainers in Cumberland County would have the exact same number of senators as the less than 17,000 Mainers who live in Piscataquis County,” said Cook.

She also claimed that redistricting would put an unnecessary burden on the Secretary of State’s office’s elections division.

Cook’s was the only testimony of any kind on the bill.

Given the extremely high bar for passing a constitutional amendment, the resolution that would remove power from the left-leaning southern Maine counties is not likely to pass through the Democrat-controlled legislature.