It came as no surprise for me to learn that, as a blonde, I am capable, not only of choosing five toppings on my pizza without becoming confused (more, when I’m feeling adventurous), but also to figure out which ice cream flavor, of 51, will satisfy my sweet tooth (sometimes I throw caution to the wind and order three flavors!).
My point: Even a ditzy blonde like me was able to figure out Maine‘s ranked-choice voting without becoming unhinged and dissolving into a puddle of tremulous insecurity as I cast my ballot.
It speaks volumes that the Republicans are trying to block ranked-choice, as they suppress votes and gerrymander themselves into office yet again. I would say the same of Democrats; however, they do not, unlike the Republicans, need to cheat to win.
The opposition to ranked-choice is that it deals fairly with third parties; all political parties, even the “Save the hedgehog” candidates, eliminating spoilers like Ralph Nader, Jill Stein and Eliot Cutler, to name a few who changed the course of history negatively.
Ranked-choice also has the benefit of neutralizing the unfairness of gerrymandering, defanging the archaic Electoral College and, most importantly, confusing Russian hackers who, once again, seek to destroy our democracy and throw it into yet more chaos than what our dear leader has already managed to accomplish with the assistance of adversarial foreign powers.
Carol Raney
Portland
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