Maine residents may have a new way to vote in the 2018 elections. Volunteers throughout Maine collected signatures on Jan. 3 and 4 for a ballot referendum that would change Maine’s electoral system.
Since October, the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting, a citizen group headed by former Maine state Sen. Dick Woodbury (I-Yarmouth) and state Rep. Diane Russell (D-Portland), has been collecting signatures to put a ranked-choice voting referendum on the ballot in 2015.
Ranked choice voting, also known as instant run-off voting, allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, rather than voting for a single candidate. If none of the candidates receive at least 50 percent of the vote, the lowest vote getter is eliminated, and those ballots are retabulated, with the votes going to the voter’s second-choice candidate. The process is repeated until only two candidates remain, and the candidate with the most votes wins.
According to Woodbury and Russell, this eliminates “spoiler” candidates because it allows for an instant run-off among the top vote-getters. It also discourages negative campaigning, as candidates will also need to seek out “second choice” votes.
Since the signature drive began in October, volunteers have collected more than 55,000 signatures. The petition needs 61,000 verified signatures by Jan. 12 to become a ballot referendum in 2015. If approved, it could be implemented during the 2018 election. — Larry Clow