As a longtime supporter of ranked-choice voting, I appreciate the support it has received in the Legislature by the two legislators who represent me: Cathy Breen in the Senate and Janice Cooper in the House.

However, since I’m not a professional politician, the more I learn about the workings of Maine government, the stranger it seems. Earlier this year both branches of our Legislature voted to use ranked-choice voting in the presidential primaries. One would have thought that since the bill passed both branches, it would then go to Gov. Mills for her signature, assuming she supported the bill.

But no, that’s not what happens. A bill passed by both branches of the Legislature then has to be enacted by both branches in additional votes. The House succeeded in doing that, but at the last minute in the Senate, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (never a supporter of ranked-choice voting) raised an issue that caused the enactment in the Senate to be delayed, and that session of the Legislature closed before enactment could be done.

Since Gov. Mills has called the Legislature into special session Monday, Monday represents the last chance to enact the bill so we can use ranked-choice voting in next March’s primaries, when there could be a double-digit number of Democrats still in the running for the Democratic nomination for president. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to rank those candidates to determine which ones have the broadest level of support?

Bill Dunn

Yarmouth

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