As we face having to choose between two of the most disliked candidates in recent political memory, or risk our votes being “spoiled” if we take a chance on our first choice, Mainers should remember that we will have a chance to fix that recurrent dilemma this November, and vote for ranked-choice voting.

Imagine being able to vote for Bernie Sanders heading another party, or Jill Stein of the Greens, and then still insuring yourself against the sheer awfulness of a Trump by voting for Hillary as a second choice. At least your vote won’t “default” to Trump if your progressive candidate doesn’t win.

(Or maybe the Republicans would launch a saner, less embarrassing candidate to appeal to some of their appalled membership without risking everything?)

At any rate, ranked-choice voting is clearly, at every stage of the electoral process, a superior way to run a democracy with more choices, not fewer and fewer, and more and more extreme choices. It honors the will of the people, as opposed to just a cynical brokered ratification of existing power.

I would urge citizens in Maine to vote this in. Voters everywhere should demand better representation through this simple but profoundly important fix to our broken election system, so clearly laid bare in the machinations of the Democratic National Committee from the beginning of the primary process. We don’t need another choice of lesser evil instead of positive good.

Bia Winter

Mount Vernon