Ranked Choice Voting will be on the ballot when Mainers go to vote this November. It was the first citizen initiated question to garner enough signatures to be on the 2016 ballot. It is obvious that Mainers have come to realize the potential for very negative outcomes in which more than two candidates are running for the same seat.

The last eleven gubernatorial races have produced only two governors who garnered more than 50 percent of the vote. That means that only 18 percent of Maine governors (Democrats, Republicans, and Independents) since 1974 have won with a majority of the vote! Is it any wonder that Mainers are frustrated with the result and wary of voting for anyone outside the mainstream, no matter how good they may be, because we are afraid of “throwing away our vote”?

Enter Ranked Choice Voting. RCV has been used in several countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, RCV has been in existence since the late 1800s and has recently been used successfully in statewide elections in North Carolina and for local elections in cities and towns in California, Colorado, Maryland, Vermont, North Carolina, Minnesota, as well as in Portland, Maine.

RCV is simple enough: As an example, in a race with three or more candidates, voters mark (rank) their ballots for candidates in order of their preference — 1st choice for the candidate they prefer the most, 2nd choice for the candidate they prefer next, and so on. If a voter prefers only one candidate and can’t vote for any other, then he or she would only mark the ballot for that candidate.

Finally, RCV has a great side benefit in that it limits negative campaigning, and has proven so where it is used.

Learn more about RCV at rcvmaine.com.

Ted Markow,

Brunswick