Forgive me if I’m misunderstanding the process, but doesn’t ranked-choice voting mean that voters already chose their second-in-line winner (in a specific race for Senate in this case) should the first choice become disqualified? If that second-choice person declines to run in the race, shouldn’t number three then be the automatic candidate?

I’m confused as to why all these candidates, in different races, are being considered by some closed-door committee, when voters already voted for their choices in the ranked-choice primaries. No one is addressing why that’s not what’s happening and voters’ decisions are being dismissed.

Perhaps there’s a standard process that I’m not aware of that disregards voters’ votes, but it seems this race for the Senate is now a free-for-all?

Just hoping for clarification as to why ranked choices by voters are suddenly ignored and those who were running in other races are being considered for the Senate race.

Patti Genest
Wells