AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)   A Maine judge is ordering the state to implement ranked-choice voting for June primary elections.

Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy had expressed reservations about being asked to step in, but she ruled Wednesday that the Secretary of State’s Office must move forward with implementing the will of state voters.

Ranked choice proponents asked the judge to intervene after Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced that a legal technicality needs to be fixed to protect the state from litigation.

Any fix faces legislative hurdles.

Mainers approved the new voting concept in a statewide referendum in November 2016 but state lawmakers delayed its implementation. More than 62,000 petitions were collected to temporarily halt the legislative delay pending a second statewide vote on June 12.