On June 12, Maine voters were asked whether they want to keep ranked choice voting. With 79% of the vote counted so far, ranked choice voting is winning with 54%. Assuming that trend continues, Maine will use ranked choice voting in November 2018 for U.S. Senate and U.S. House.
Whether Maine uses ranked choice voting for state office in future general elections depends on whether a future session of the legislature passes a constitutional amendment to provide for that.
GOOD!!! This proves there resistance against Status quo.
BAD!!!
SHOWS MAJOR IGNORANCE ABOUT THE FATAL DEFECTS OF RCV MATH FOR SINGLE OFFICES.
Us voters are opposed to the one party system under the bad math of RCV in single winner districts because America is a melting pot and we in America believe all people are created equal not just one party or one civic group.
The damage done in SF, Oakland and Maine is all because pluralist only want 100% control, they only see politics about fights and how many controversial posts get generated by the fight but they are not capable of teamwork because pluralism laughs at civil cooperation. Pluralists won’t lift a finger (except the middle one) to encourage what is correct and good. The want to be in a fight where they conduct the power grab attempt with the party bosses. Pluralist don’t want equal time and equal treatment.
Maine would be adopting a one party system and far worse than pluralism with the random split votes. Instead, one party controls all under RCV in Maine, and no 2nd, 3rd, or independent will ever need to be treated fairly under the coming one party system in Maine.
Are you interested in PPR, which nurtures equal time and equal treatment in elections?
The United Coalition has been using PPR for more than twenty-three consecutive years and PPR works fine.
http://www.international-parliament.org/ucc.html
The acceptance of RCV opens the door to other forms of alternative voting. The way many RCV ballots are printed, with numbered ovals next to the names of candidates, can be used to cast votes in a number of ways. I can envision a hybrid approval/RCV voting system with such ballots. If a voter wanted to do approval voting, that voter could mark the ballot with all “1” for the approved candidates. If the voters want to rank choices, they would utilize the 1,2,3 rankings. The winner would be the candidate with the largest majority of “1” votes. If no candidate had a majority, then the ranked choices would be transferred.
Also, in multi-member districts, cumulative voting would be possible with RCV ballots. A voter could signify cumulative votes for a candidate with a multiple number of 1,2,3 votes along side the name of a candidate in a 3 member district. That voter could also split cumulative votes by casting 1,2 votes for the more preferred candidate, and a 1 vote for a second candidate.
So, while RCV isn’t perfect (no voting system is unless their is perfect agreement among the electorate), it opens the door to other possible voting methods.
It’d be nice if the question was asking the voters to rank which system they’d want to use (Condorcet, IRV, etc) with the RCV but that’d would probably be too meta
Three cheers for Maine! Now hopefully we can get other states to adopt RCV and even proportional representation.
Since Maine is one of the very few somewhat even D vs R States, there is some real chance to get PR there.
@ Brandon: Ha Ha. Good one. But, I’m coming around to the idea of a hybrid voting system, whereby each voter could choose how to vote. As I have pointed out, the way that RCV ballots are set up for character readers, this is actually possible IMO. A singular “1” vote could be counted as a traditional “x” vote. Multiple “1” votes could be counted as approval votes. Ranked choices such as 1-2-3, would be counted as ranked votes, but only used if no one got a majority of “1” votes. In multi-member districts, votes could be cast cumulatively as 1-2-3-etc votes for one candidate, up to the number of positions available. Thus, the voter would actually choose how he or she wants the votes counted on his or her own ballot. Thus, there would also be fewer void votes, as overcounts and undercounts would signify a choice of voting method. There could also be a “D” column for disapproval votes, and if the D’s surpassed the number of total votes for a candidate, that candidate would be disqualified.
Condorcet = Number Votes plus YES/NO as tiebreaker.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/06/13/historic-victory-maine-voters-demand-ranked-choice-voting-statewide-electionsagain
A STORY.
http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99565
2018 RCV is a bit deja vu — early 1900s