RANKED CHOICE VOTING IS ON THE BALLOT FOR JUNE! Please help with this People's Veto Effort. Thanks!

[LBM20]

We did it! The People's Veto to Restore Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is on the ballot for June. It has been confirmed by the Sec. of State. We stood out in the freezing cold to collect signatures and made it happen! WE HAVE MADE HISTORY! For the first time ever, we will use RCV statewide. This is what Mainers do. DIRIGO! We LEAD!

What this means is that we will both use RCV in the June primaries (which makes TONS of sense with so many candidates on the ballots vying to be nominated), and we will also vote on the People's Veto question itself. A YES vote means it passes and we will be able to permanently use RCV for the seven elections not affected at all by the state constitution (primaries for all offices and general elections for the federal offices).

Now what will happen is a major voter education effort to make sure people fully understand RCV, which is quite simple. It is simply an instant runoff voting system used in many places around the nation and around the world. Also, we need to smash down the lies about RCV because those who want to keep the failed status quo for their own selfish political purposes are going to continue to spread those lies.

The main thing people can do to help is to spread the word to support the People's Veto in June because this isn't just about RCV but about telling the legislature and LePage NO MORE ATTACKING ALL OF OUR REFERENDUMS!! As you know many in the legislature, mainly Republicans, and LePage have been on a crusade to kill all of our progressive referendums, including Medicaid Expansion which passed with 59% of the vote. This is our chance to say loudly and clearly NO MORE!

So, please help with Letters to the Editor and other communications to help support the People's Veto to Restore RCV in June. We need to flood the papers all over the state with Letters to the Editor and OpEds in support of RCV.

Also, the campaign will need donations, volunteers, etc. Even small $5 donations help a lot. Go to this link to donate and sign up to volunteer: http://www.rcvmaine.com/

Thanks! Now let's get out there and save democracy in Maine!

[SWBTATTReg]

1. RCV? Interesting concept...first time I've heard of this...I hope that it succeeds...nt

[LBM20]

2. Thanks. It is simply an instant run-off voting system, used in a number of cities and countries.

Last edited Mon Mar 12, 2018, 06:06 AM - Edit history (1)

You just rank the candidates in order of preference when there are more than two candidates. If no one gets a majority after the first count, then the instant run-off kicks in. The candidate who scores the least number of votes in eliminated. Then the ballots of everyone who voted for that candidate as first choice go to their second choice instead. The votes are then re-tabulated. This continues until there is a majority winner. It is used in Portland, Maine's largest city, for their mayoral elections and it works great and is very popular there. Cambridge, MA has been using it at the local level since 1941. It takes out the vote splitting spoiler effect of traditional plurality elections and also makes campaigns more civil because candidates need people to vote for them as second choice if they are not the voter's first choice. So they don't want to alienate large portions of the electorate. Ranked Choice Voting is a proven voting method which gives voters more voice and more choice.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Wow...I love this and thanks for the great explanation...we need to do in ...

Missouri and also the rest of the country! Thanks so much. Peace and prosperity, my friend.

[LBM20]

4. Thanks