Ranked-choice voting is a system of voting that always elects a candidate with more than 50% of the votes cast. Mathematically, ranked-choice voting election results can’t end with any other result. This means a candidate elected using ranked-choice voting will have support from a majority of voters. Unlike a plurality system of voting, where a candidate can win with as little as 34% of the votes in a three-way race, ranked-choice voting ensures whoever gets elected, regardless of party, will represent a majority of the voters. Now who would be against that?

The Maine Republican Party is attempting to overturn the use of ranked-choice voting in our state through a people’s referendum. Organizers are now collecting signatures to get it on the November ballot.

Opponents claim ranked-choice voting violates the Maine Constitution. It does not. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled in May 2017 that ranked-choice voting could not be used in the general election for state representative, state senator, and governor because the state constitution stipulates those positions must be elected by a plurality.

However, using ranked-choice voting in the primaries for state representative, state senator, governor, our four members of Congress and president follow the Maine Constitution. Using ranked-choice voting in the general election for Congress and the president is constitutional as well.

Republicans claim ranked-choice voting violates the one-person/one-vote principle. It does not. ranked-choice voting allows each voter to rank their choices in order of preference, but only one choice is counted as a vote. The Maine Republican Party elects party officials with a series of run-off elections in which the candidate with the least votes is eliminated before the next run-off election is held. That’s the same process ranked-choice voting (a.k.a. instant runoff) uses, except all voting is done in one election.

The Republicans use ranked-choice voting because they know it elects party officials who have a majority of support — but they don’t want the general public to use it.

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This is the third time in four years Republicans have tried to block ranked-choice voting, a voting system a majority of Mainers have shown, repeatedly, that they want. In November 2016, a majority of Maine people voted for ranked-choice voting and it became law. But, in October 2017, the Legislature decided to ignore the people’s vote, and lawmakers repealed ranked-choice voting. Subsequently, voters passed a people’s referendum question in June 2018 to restore ranked-choice voting.

It’s clear that the people of Maine want to use ranked-choice voting to elect truly representative leaders.

The Republican people’s referendum needs to collect 63,000 signatures by June 15 to get a question on the November ballot. At last count, they were about 50,000 signatures short.

One thing Mainers like about ranked-choice voting is it encourages candidates to reach out to and understand their opponent’s base. We saw this process in action during the 2018 2nd District congressional election between Jared Golden, Bruce Poliquin and two independent candidates.

Golden took the time to reach out to and understand his opponent’s supporters, but Poliquin dismissed his opponent’s supporters. The initial vote count showed Poliquin had a marginal lead, but when the two candidates with the least votes were eliminated and their supporters’ second choices were counted — the same process used in any run-off election — Golden earned more of those second-choice votes.

Because Golden reached out to his opponent’s supporters and showed he understood their concerns, he won the election with more than 50% of the total votes cast. If Poliquin had recognized the benefits of ranked-choice voting and reached out to his opponent’s supporters, he may have won the election with the same voting system he wants to repeal. The ranked-choice voting system did not cause Poliquin to lose the election; his inability to reach across the aisle did.

Another thing the Maine voters like about ranked-choice voting is it encourages candidates to be civil and campaign on the issues. All too often, candidate debates turn into shouting matches and grandstanding; that’s great for entertainment, but not for understanding a candidate’s position on critical issues.

Returning to electing our government representatives with a majority vote is imperative to the survival of the nation. No democracy can maintain its legitimacy with minority rule. Ranked-choice voting goes a long way toward turning candidates’ public shouting matches and negative campaigning into curious relics of a dysfunctional age.

Tom Waddell is president of the Maine Chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. He welcomes comments at: president@ffrfmaine.org


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