Over the last 40 years, winners in nine of the last 11 gubernatorial elections were actually opposed by a majority of Mainers. You read that right. Without a majority rule requirement for our elections, winning candidates have often been elected with well under 50 percent support. This has got to change, especially as multi-candidate races become the norm in this state.
Think about all the chaos and turmoil in Augusta right now and then think about the way we elect our leaders. It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy. We cannot expect our leaders to get anything done in office when they are elected without a majority support. We need a better system.
There is a fair and simple way to fix this problem. Return power to the voters and use a system called rank choice voting. This system allows voters to rank the candidates they like in order of preference and uses an “instant run-off” counting process to determine a winner supported by a majority of voters.
Proponents of a ballot initiative to use ranked choice voting for federal and state primary and general elections will be submitting over 70,000 signatures this month to place their referendum question on the November 2016 statewide ballot. I urge readers to get involved and do your part to educate other voters about the benefit if this reform.
For more information on how ranked voting works, why we need it and hoiw you can get involved in this effort, please visit www.fairvotemaine.org
William Dunham Jr.
Chesterville
People who don’t get their first choice probably won’t support their second. “I think he’s doing a LOUSY job! He wasn’t MY first choice ANYWAY!”
How about being able to vote ‘NONE OF THE ABOVE’ ….
“Ranked Choice Voting:
– Empowers voters with more meaningful choice.
– Minimizes strategic voting.
– Creates a positive atmosphere where candidates campaign to the voters rather than against each other.
By maximizing the power of voters and choice among candidates, ranked choice voting creates a more representative democracy. …”
http://www.fairvote.org/reforms/instant-runoff-voting/
If we had anyone worth voting for…there would be an overwhelming majority winner.
The reason our votes are scattered is because politicians have become uninspiring partisan party puppets..
Mostly dead wood out for themselves..and their pathetic political party.
Lacking leadership qualities.so the votes are all over the place.
Yawn…..
Look at the governments in most of the country’s big cities and it’s apparent that people worth voting for aren’t wanted and don’t get elected there, and in most cases, haven’t for some time. Crime and corruption run rampant, and we all know which party runs them and is responsible for the crime and corruption, but will remain in power for the foreseeable future. Depressing.