By using ranked-choice voting in the general election for U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 6, Maine is again making history. (Ranked-choice voting will not be used in the general election for governor Tuesday.)

Ranked-choice voting is simply a runoff voting system for races with more than two candidates, done through one efficient ballot. It is nonpartisan, and it is one person, one ranked-choice vote. Ranked-choice voting further empowers voters and gives us winners who better reflect the will of the people.

You simply rank the candidates in order of preference. If someone gets a majority after the first count, it’s over. If not, the instant runoff kicks in. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the ballots of those who selected that candidate as their first choice then go to their second choice. Everyone else’s ballots stay with their first choice. The ballots are then retabulated. This continues until there is a majority winner.

Ranked-choice voting was used successfully in the June primary elections. Reports showed primary election voters overwhelmingly found ranked-choice voting to be easy. It was cost-effective, and there was none of the predicted “chaos.” It did not take “weeks” for the results. And ranked-choice voting was again strongly supported by a solid majority of Maine voters.

Runoff election systems are pretty common. The Maine Republican Party uses a runoff process similar to ranked-choice voting to elect its party officers. Ranked-choice voting is used in Portland to elect its mayor, and Lewiston uses a traditional runoff process to elect its mayor. I would encourage voters to participate in ranking the federal-level candidates in the upcoming elections.

Ron Bilancia

Brewer

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