An early headline on your online coverage of the gubernatorial primary results, “Voters left hanging as ranked-choice complicates primary races for governor,” was a disservice to your readers.
Ranked-choice voting is designed so that the candidate with the broadest popular support wins with the support of a majority, not merely the largest minority.
It is not a disservice to ensure that the entire process is done correctly, especially considering that this is the first time this type of voting is being used on this scale. The only disservice is the limited hours per day that Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap has authorized to process the retabulations, though that is an understandable decision to prevent errors due to fatigue.
I am confident that future elections with ranked-choice voting will go faster.
Jeffrey Kaplan
Biddeford
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