The Portland Press Herald / The Maine Sunday Telegram

February 18

Our Views: 'Instant-runoff' ballot worth trying for mayor

Ranking choices from first to last will guarantee a majority vote for the winner.

It might take some getting used to, but the Portland Charter Commission's decision to recommend that voters pick candidates for mayor by ranking their choices from ''most liked'' to ''least favored'' is worth a try.

The commission is putting together a series of proposals to change the city's charter -- Portland's basic structure of municipal organization.

And commissioners are planning to recommend, among other changes, that the office of mayor be elected by voters instead of the nine members of the City Council, as happens now.

How an elected mayor's duties would differ from those of the current post, which is more accurately described by the title of ''council chairman,'' remains to be determined by the commission. But one thing they have already approved, by a 9-1 vote, is to have the mayor elected by a system of ''ranked'' or ''instant-runoff'' voting, as is done in a handful of other localities around the nation.

Voters will decide in November whether to accept the commission's plans, and if they do, the office of mayor will be filled by a citywide vote which voters will be asked to rank each candidate by how strongly they favor that person for the post.

So, if there were four candidates, voters would be asked to select their first, second, third and fourth choices.

If no one received a majority of first-place votes on the first round, the lowest-ranking candidate would be dropped and the second-, third- and fourth-place votes on that candidate's ballots would be distributed to the other candidates. That process would continue until one candidate got more than 50 percent of the votes.

If that sounds more complicated than the present process, it is. The jurisdictions where it is being used say that they instituted a strong education process prior to bringing ranked ballots to the voting booth, which would be wise for Portland to do as well.

Still, since the system will only be used for one office, it could become an experiment not only for the city but for other Maine communities and even the state as a whole. If voters here can adapt to it and like it, that could make it more feasible for statewide use.

It's worth a try, at least.