On June 12, Maine voters passed a “People's Veto,” rebuffing an attempt by the Maine Legislature to delay implementation of ranked-choice voting. Maine also became the first state in the nation to use ranked-choice voting in a statewide election.
Under Maine’s ranked-choice voting system, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If a candidate receives more than half of the first-choice votes, that candidate wins. If no one receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest first choices is eliminated. The voters who ranked the eliminated candidate first then have their second-choice votes distributed to other candidates. This continues until a candidate has a majority of the active votes.
Ranked-choice voting ensures that whoever wins an election best reflects the views of the majority of voters. This is an especially salient point in Maine, where in several major elections — including nine out of the last 11 elections for governor — the “winner” received less than 50 percent of the vote. In five of those elections, the winner received less than 40 percent of the vote.
Supporters of ranked-choice voting also say it allows voters to rank their favorite candidate first, without feeling like they are throwing away their vote by choosing a less popular candidate. In addition, advocates believe that ranked-choice voting may reduce negative campaigning. There will now be value in receiving second-place votes, so there is more incentive to avoid negative attacks and focus on the issues.
The path to implementation has been rocky for advocates of ranked-choice voting. In 2016, a majority of Maine voters approved Question 5 — a ballot measure requiring the state to implement ranked-choice voting in the June 2018 primary. However, in a 2017 special session, the Maine Legislature passed a law to delay implementation of ranked-choice voting until 2022 and repeal the law entirely unless a constitutional amendment was passed. Supporters of ranked-choice voting, joined by People Power volunteers, got to work to veto the action of the legislature. These advocates collected the required 61,123 signatures to place the People's Veto on the ballot, and Maine voters passed it.
Maine will now implement ranked-choice voting for all future federal primary and general elections as well as primaries for governor and primaries for state legislative races. Now future elections using ranked-choice voting will reflect the views of, and have the support of, the majority of voters.

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Dr. Timothy Leary
They always do things different in Maine due to their French heritage.
Designergenes
Good ! This would have eliminated most of the acrimony between Bernie and Hillary voters. For a Presidential vote, the second ranked choice should become VP, regardless of party. All candidates have a chance and all Need to be proven to meet citizenship, age, etc. requirements before being allowed to appear on the ballot.
It might also allow for a triumvirate, three co-presidents to become a better form of top Executive.
Turtle
Just so you know though, Bernie would have won in Maine, even with RCV. He burried her here. I was at the primaries. Hillary had no chance in Maine. Bernie had more than 50% of the votes. He had 64.17% to her 35.49%. Vernie would have won even with RCV on the first round.
Lolo
Great! Gerrymandering is a sin.
KL
Brilliant!
David Crafti
As someone who grew up in Australia, where this is standard in our lower houses of state and federal parliaments, let me just say, it's about time.
Jay
Does this include the vote for President?
Turtle
No. Right now it is only for Maine state primaries. Not even for the governor, but we aim to change that.
Bill C.
The presidential vote would be tricky, because you'd need to decide how it interacts with the electoral college. The simplistic way would let someone vote for Jill Stein, then Hillary Clinton, thinking they aren't throwing their vote away, but then if Jill Stein won the state, all of Maine's vote would be thrown away.
Anonymous
I absolutely LOVE THIS!!!!!
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