Lawmakers on the Veterans and Legal Affairs (VLA) Committee are divided along partisan lines over whether or not to advance a proposal to repeal ranked choice voting.
While all Republicans on the committee voted in support of doing away with the controversial system, all Democrats opposed this effort.
LD 234 — An Act to Eliminate Ranked-Choice Voting — was sponsored by Rep. Richard H. Campbell (R-Orrington) and cosponsored by Rep. Amy Bradstreet Arata (R-New Gloucester), Rep. Irene A. Gifford (R-Lincoln), Rep. Randall Adam Greenwood (R-Wales), Rep. Abigail W. Griffin (R-Levant), Rep. Shelley Rudnicki (R-Fairfield), Rep. Michael Soboleski (R-Phillips), and Rep. Tiffany Strout (R-Harrington).
In the wake of the November 5 election — during which a number of critical state, local, and federal races were on the ballot — ranked choice voting took center stage for many Mainers, especially in light of the complications it caused in the highly contested Second District U.S. House race between incumbent Rep. Jared Golden (D) and Maine State Rep. Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent).
Because neither of these candidates won over fifty percent of votes cast — due in large part to a significant number of “blank” first-choice selections and the presence of a declared write-in candidate — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows determined that the state was forced to initiate ranked choice procedures.
After an initial ranked choice tabulation, Rep. Golden claimed victory when the count showed him as having secured more than fifty percent of the vote in District 2.
Mainers took the first step toward using ranked choice voting in 2016 when voters approved a citizens initiative by a margin of about 32,000 votes or 4.2 percent.
Following a recount and certification, An Act to Establish Ranked-Choice Voting was enacted and set to take effect for the 2018 election.
After quite a bit of controversy and a People’s Veto effort, the Kennebec County Superior Court ordered the Secretary of State to begin using ranked choice voting immediately in the upcoming 2018 primary elections.
This marked the first statewide use ranked choice voting in the country.
Ranked choice voting went on to play a major role in the November 2018 election, as the system resulted in longtime Republican District 2 Representative Bruce Poliquin losing his reelection bid, paving the way for Golden to first take office.
When introducing this bill to repeal the system, Rep. Campbell highlighted the distaste for ranked choice voting that he has witnessed emerging in Maine.
“In talking with constituents and other voters across the State, l have become increasingly aware that many find ranked-choice voting to be complex and confusing,” he said. “Citizens are unsure when the system applies or how to complete what should be a simple ballot.”
“A growing consensus is that ranked-choice voting violates the belief in ‘one person, one vote,’ leaving much of the electorate feeling confused and frustrated when the candidate with the most votes loses as a result of applying second choices,” he added.
“Plurality voting has been accepted and worked for decades,” he argued. “Change for the sake of change does not always reap the desired results.”
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows testified against this proposal, arguing that implementation of the new voting system was easy and that voters appreciate the extra choice at the ballot box.
“Since its implementation, we have found voters appreciate the option to rank the candidates on their ballots, and that they have found it easy to vote in this manner,” Bellows said. “As it is exactly how we rank choices on all sorts of things every day — what to make for dinner for our families each night, what music to put on the radio, where to go on vacation — implementing ranked choice for voting was not difficult.”
“We also feel that voters appreciate the option to vote their heart, rather than having to stress and worry that voting for their favorite candidate in a plurality election may end up helping their least favorite candidate win, that they will have to vote for the lesser of two evils, or that their decision will split the vote,” she continued. “Voter frustration, often found in that plurality voting, does not always accurately reflect the will of the majority; and this is one of the reasons Maine voters chose [ranked choice voting].”
Nationwide, ranked choice voting is not a common means by which citizens cast their ballots in primary or general elections. To date, the system has only been approved statewide in Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington DC.
There are a number of municipalities that have adopted ranked choice voting for local elections, including in California, New York, and Minnesota, among others.
Alaska narrowly rejected an effort in November to repeal its open primary and ranked choice voting system, with just 737 votes separating support from opposition, representing only .2 percent of votes cast.
Now that the VLA Committee has weighed in on Maine’s attempt to repeal ranked choice voting, it will now go before the full Legislature for further consideration.
0 Comments