The apparent frontrunner in the Republican gubernatorial race, Bobby Charles, also appears to have no idea how ranked-choice voting works.

On the campaign trail, Charles is telling supporters to pick him as their first choice on the June 9 primary ballot. This is what every candidate wants.

But he doesn’t stop there. Charles goes on to urge voters to pick him also as their second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth choice — none of which will help him.

Anyone who wants Charles to become governor — and I wish there were fewer of these voters, given his effort to rally racists to his side — can pick him first and leave the rest blank to have exactly the same result.

The reality of the system of ranked-choice voting, which we’ve been using successfully in Maine since 2018, is that the only time officials look past the first-round vote on a ballot is if that candidate has been eliminated from contention by others who have more votes.

It’s a simple concept that Maine Democrats have mastered.

A growing number of our GOP hopefuls are figuring it out, too.

David Jones and Ben Midgley, both angling for Republican gubernatorial backing, cross-endorsed each other last week — asking their voters to rank the other candidate second.

Another Republican hopeful, Robert Wessels, urged his voters to rank Jonathan Bush second. Wessels likes Bush so much that he’s agreed to serve as his grassroots chair for the 2nd Congressional District.

Most of the GOP gubernatorial field appealed to Republican voters to pick them second if someone else was their favorite, recognizing that, in a big field, nobody was likely to grab a majority in the first round.

But Charles, well, he’s taking an inventive approach.

“Charles, Charles, Charles, Charles, Charles, Charles is how it’s done,” he said on Facebook. “Literally right straight across. That’s how we stay faithful to our convictions.”

Given the rest of his ill-conceived agenda, math-defying advice is par for the course for Charles. But is this level of bluster and showboating really what the GOP wants in a governor?

“Don’t let Shenna Bellows meddle in our primary and don’t accept being treated like a pawn by Augusta politicians desperate to cling to power,” Charles said, although nothing about the proper use of ranked-choice voting would result in either of those things. He even used AI to make a cartoon about how to fill in the ballot to his tastes.

My advice is more straightforward. If Charles doesn’t want anything to do with ranked-choice voting, you’d be defying him by picking him second, third, fourth and fifth on the ballot.

If you want him to be governor, go ahead and select him first. And if you think any of the other candidates are worthy — in my view, they’re all worthier — leave off Charles as the choice for any subsequent rounds.

I’ve seen enough of David Jones to recognize that he’s not the most clever politician to hit the hustings. But even he knows enough to tell voters, “If I’m not your first, make me second.”

Another of the Republican candidates, Owen McCarthy, had the good sense to hail his competitors when he said that if he wins “I’m hiring all these guys,” a politically savvy thing to say in a ranked-choice race that I hope will not come to pass.

After all, the winner is going to be whoever collects enough second-, third- or maybe even fourth-round votes to emerge with a majority.

Charles says that relying on ranked-choice voting would be a victory for Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. It would only be a victory for common sense.