It’s said that only conservatives are opposed to ranked-choice voting and that it will apparently cure every problem except baldness. Well, I’m opposed, and will put my lifelong liberal credentials up against anyone’s. The Legislature needs to establish election runoffs between the two top vote-getters.

I believe ranked-choice voting is an election scam that the bookies have already figured out, and they will be paid to advise candidates’ supporters on how to purposely vote their first and second vote to block out those who might get another’s second choice. And so much for our “one person, one vote” democracy. No matter how you cut it, if my votes get counted more than once – once when I’ve lost and maybe once again – I will have voted twice.

No matter how votes are jury-rigged when the votes are counted, if a candidate had not received 50 percent plus one, nothing that vote manipulation does will give that person a true majority vote – nothing! It will simply be a manipulation of the outcome and an award to a loser.

Supposedly, with ranked-choice voting the candidates will be polite because they will not want to alienate the other side. Are we that naïve? A runoff will make the outcome absolutely definitive, and the winner will receive a true majority vote without having to have strategized an elaborate first-, second- and third-choice vote maneuvering ploy as part of his or her campaign. No amount of vote manipulation will change the outcome.

The so-called winner of ranked-choice will still be a loser. Let’s have runoff elections and a true winner. Democracy is not cheap, and even though instant gratification is the goal of the high-speed internet world of today, a runoff produces a true winner. It just might take longer – heaven forbid!

Robert L. Piccone

president emeritus, Teamsters Local 340

Portland