Isn’t it great that for November’s general election for federal offices, we will be able to use ranked-choice voting? That means that in the election for U.S. Senate, we won’t have to worry that by voting for our preferred candidate among Eric Brakey, Angus King and Zak Ringelstein, we help elect our least favorite candidate.
Similarly, in the U.S. House of Representatives elections, we won’t have to worry that we help elect our least favorite candidate by voting for our preferred candidate among Marty Grohman, Mark Holbrook and Chellie Pingree in the 1st District and among Tiffany Bond, Will Hoar, Jared Golden and Bruce Poliquin in the 2nd District.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could also use ranked-choice voting in the general election for state offices? That way we wouldn’t have to worry that by voting for our preferred candidate for governor among Alan Caron, Terry Hayes, Janet Mills and Shawn Moody, we might help elect our least favorite candidate. Similarly, for Maine legislative elections.
How do we fix this? By electing to the State House senators and representatives who will support a Maine constitutional amendment to clearly allow use of ranked-choice voting in the general election for state offices and not just in state primaries. When looking at your local elections for state offices, ask the candidates for senator and representative if they will support such an amendment and then vote accordingly.
Bill Dunn
Yarmouth
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