On May 13, the Maine Joint Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee defeated LD 1422, a bill that would have established ranked-choice voting for congressional and state office, and also established a presidential primary. This was a peculiar bill, because those are two entirely different subjects wrapped up in the same bill. Thanks to FrontloadingHQ for this news.
I must assume that when the term ranked choice voting is used, it refers to single-winner districts. That’s the same system being promoted and supported by BAN for the last 18 years.
“Ranked-choice voting” doesn’t just refer to single-winner districts. That is the term that was used in New York city 1937-1947, when each borough chose multiple city council-at-large members.
It would be wise to report on whether the ranked choice voting is single-winner or multi-winner in the future.
Single-winner elections are winner-takes-all plurality and the implementation of such districts might result in a back-lash.
For example, top two could be a Republican response to SF’s single-winner districts.
The disenfranchisement of Republicans would hurt unity with large portions of voters.