I’m a person who collected many signatures to put ranked-choice voting on the ballot in 2016 and who is still collecting signatures for a people’s veto of the actions of the Legislature to ignore the will of the people when the people passed the ranked-choice voting law.
One of the more interesting experiences I have had, when collecting signatures for the people’s veto, is listening to the people who have signed the people’s veto petition who did not support ranked-choice voting. What they say when signing is that while they may not support ranked-choice voting, they have had it with the Legislature ignoring the will of the people.
The solution to this problem is to elect legislators who will go to Augusta and do what the people want, not what they want for political purposes. Many legislators sitting in Augusta do not support ranked-choice voting, for the simple reason that they take advantage of the existing system to get elected. It is time to vote out those legislators who think they know more than the people.
While there may be a constitutional issue with using ranked-choice voting in the general election for state offices, there is no issue with using it for primary elections for both state and federal offices and for the general election for federal offices. Let’s get on with it instead of throwing up more and more roadblocks to the will of the people. Let’s restore some sanity to our electoral process and our government.
Bill Dunn
Yarmouth
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