Maine has a unique opportunity to lead on election reform once more, but it is running out of time. On Monday, the Senate passed Senate President Troy Jackson’s bill to adopt ranked-choice voting for presidential primaries and general elections (“Maine Senate passes ranked-choice voting for March presidential primaries,” Aug. 26). Gov. Janet Mills should sign it.
The presidential primary is only six months from now, and with more than 20 Democratic candidates and at least three Republican candidates, we need ranked-choice voting to help increase voter engagement, avoid vote-splitting, and ensure we elect majority winners.
Under current election law, ranked-choice voting is used in every federal primary and general election in Maine except for the presidential election. L.D. 1083 proposes a simple expansion of Maine’s existing ranked-choice voting system, which voters twice voted for and worked well in 2018.
In fact, six other states are adopting it for their 2020 presidential primaries and caucuses based on Maine’s successful implementation. We should join them.
Chris Michael
Camden
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