On Nov. 6, for the first time, Mainers will be able to vote using ranked-choice voting in a general election for federal office. Ranked-choice voting allows us to select our choice for an office in the order of our preference (first, second, third, etc.).

We should be proud that Maine leads the nation in being the first state to enact ranked-choice voting and that it passed with the second-largest vote of any ballot question in Maine’s history.

To be clear, the offices for which ranked-choice voting can be used Nov. 6 are U.S. senator and U.S. representative. We cannot yet use ranked-choice voting in state and local general elections, so it won’t be available in the governor’s race or local races.

Why? Because the Maine Constitution says that winners must be decided by a plurality of the votes; a constitutional amendment will probably be needed to overturn this. Stay tuned.

Vote Nov. 6.

Polly Shaw

Bath


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