A note about the Maine Primary: Ranked-Choice voting will NOT be applied

[brooklynite]

RCV will be used in the General Election, but because delegates are awarded proportionally, you don't need a single "winner".

[bluewater]

1. Rank Choice Voting in the General Election is basically a "big whoop, who cares", right?

I mean, who has a ghost of a chance besides the Democrat and the Republican?

I suppose it allows an insignificant number of voters to make some sort of first-choice protest vote with out throwing their vote away.

I dunno.

What's your take?

[brooklynite]

3. I concur, it's good for "democracy".....

...and if there actually was a groundswell for a third party candidate they might have a chance, but broadly it prevents a third party/Independent from splitting the votes for one of the major Parties.

[bluewater]

5. Great point about it stopping 3rd party siphoning of votes.

From either legitimate smaller movements like the Greens, misguided egotists ala Nader, or just mischief makers (takes a quick glance towards Tulsi Gabbard).

Ok. It's a more useful idea than I first thought.

Smaller causes would get more exposure with out damaging a larger ally in the election as a whole.

Ugh, I just had another thought... it would allow alt-right fringe groups to do the same thing. Huh.

[NurseJackie]

8. Are additional choices REQUIRED in order for the ballot to be valid and complete?

Could the disgruntled and malcontent third party voter simply vote for Jill Stein and nobody else?

[ibegurpard]

12. No they are not required to vote for additional choices

https://www.acgov.org/rov/documents/rcv-faq-english.pdf

[democrattotheend]

4. Disagree

If I am understanding ranked choice voting correctly, it allows people who want to vote Green or similar to do so but designate Democrats as their second choice. Am I wrong about that? Am I confusing ranked choice with IRV?

[bluewater]

9. I think we are making the same point.

It Allows a "first-choice" to be recorded that doesn't necessarily impact the eventual final outcome.

[dsc]

6. actually instant run off

the true name of this system, is a huge deal. Had we had that nationwide in 2016, Hillary might well have won. Trump won those three states we always are discussing with pluralities, not majorities, of the vote. Had Hillary been the 2nd choice of enough third party voters in those states or at least a higher choice than Trump on enough of those ballots then she would have won those states. The entire reason Maine has this is LePage won twice with considerably under 50% of the vote thanks to the left splitting its votes.

[MaineBlueBear]

7. Eventually it'll make a difference

I'm super proud Maine has adopted RCV. I think there will eventually be viable third party candidates once more states go that way, too.

Locally, it will help prevent our the travesty of 38% LePage situations. I'm glad Elliot Cutler's ego didn't run in 2018 as the third party spoiler.

The energy around the 2018 got my fellow Dems to the polls and now we have the wonderful Janet Mills! Now with RCV in 2022, when we have a Dem in the White House there may not be the same kind of energy to keep Gov. Mills in office.

I think it will be a very long time until we have another Republican governor!

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. I also look forward to fewer LePages!

[DanTex]

11. If there was RCV in 2000, Gore would have won by a non-cheatable margin.

Basically, ranked choice voting prevents "Nadering."

[tiredtoo]

2. Personally I think ranked voting is a good idea.

May find it to be a bad idea but from what i have read about it, i would like to give it a shot.

[dsc]

10. Instant run off could still work for this

the cutoff would be 15% instead of 50% + 1. If NH had used this the first eliminated candidate (with decent numbers of votes) would have been Biden, his votes would have gone to a 2nd choice. Stop the process when all remaining candidates have at least 15% (likely after Biden and Warren got redistributed but maybe only Biden would have been needed).

[Codeine]

14. I wish instant runoff could gain some traction

on a national scale.