In the lead-up to the June presidential primary, organizers with Maine Coalition for Palestine urged voters to mark their ballots “uncommitted” or “ceasefire.” Following a similar effort in Michigan that garnered 100,000 “uncommitted” votes, Maine organizers sought to send a message to then-candidate Biden and the Democratic Party: “As long as you continue your unconditional support for Israel as it massacres Palestinians in Gaza, you cannot count on our votes.”

Just two weeks of organizing rallied over 10% of voters (20% in Portland) to write in “ceasefire” on their primary ballots. A decisive number of Maine voters chose anti-genocide over the two establishment candidates.

Fast forward four months, and we have a new candidate in Vice President Harris, but she’s vowed to play from the same genocide handbook as her predecessor. What options do Maine’s “uncommitted” voters have on Nov. 5?

Vice President Harris has ignored national pleas to break from Biden’s unconditional support of Israel or to even consider an arms embargo. Trump will be no better (if not worse) on Israel-Palestine, and much worse for our country. There are third-party candidates on the presidential ballot who have come out against U.S. military aid to Israel and expressed strong support for Palestinian human rights. But they are extremely unlikely to win. And many worry, if we don’t vote for Harris, aren’t we helping former President Trump?

This is the dilemma facing pro-Palestine voters across the country – except in Maine, where we split our electoral votes and have ranked choice voting. Mainers have a unique opportunity to register their anti-genocide protest vote without inadvertently helping Trump. We can cast a vote for third-party candidates who support an arms embargo on Israel and self-determination for Palestinians, without worrying that we are helping Trump.

Ranking one or more third-party candidates first, second, third,  then ranking Harris last (and not ranking Trump at all) means third-party votes default to Harris if no candidate gets at least 50%. Trump doesn’t benefit if he’s not ranked, and Harris’ victory is an almost certainty in Maine’s 1st District. If your worst case scenario is a Trump victory, a third-party vote registers dissent, but if she needs it to win, your vote will go to Harris.

Mainers passed ranked choice voting by referendum to break the dominance of the two-party system. In the case of Israel and Palestine, both the Democratic and Republican parties have allowed U.S. aid to flow to Israel, refusing even to enforce U.S. laws against countries violating human rights and committing war crimes.

On the presidential ballot in Maine, several candidates strongly support an arms embargo on Israel and Palestinian human rights: Jill Stein (Green Party), Cornel West (Justice for All) and Claudia De la Cruz (Party for Socialism and Liberation). The latter is an official write-in candidate. And a candidate with similar views, Diana Merenda, is running as a write-in candidate in Congressional District 2.

In Maine, thanks to ranked choice voting, we have real choices on Nov. 5 without fear of voting for a spoiler candidate. We can remind our elected leaders that the electoral system is not static, but a living, adapting manifestation of our hopes and demands for our country. Third-party voters in Maine have an opportunity to participate in our democracy fully, by sending a resounding message about the role of protest as a democratic responsibility, not a spoiler.