There is an election on June 12.  On the ballot will be "Question 1."  Question 1 seeks to expand "Ranked Choice Voting" in Maine.  Vote NO!

Ranked Choice Voting is a screwball system with a ballot that looks like a Bingo card.  On that ballot, people are supposed to "rank" all of their candidates in order of preference.  If nobody's first choice candidate gets greater than 50% of the overall vote, they start counting second choices and then thirds and so on and so forth until, of the ballots that are left, someone gets a "majority."

For example, there are five candidates: A, B, C, D and E.

In the first round of voting, A gets 40%, B gets 30%, C gets 20% and D and E each get 5%.  A doesn't win.

A second round (and then third) are counted.  In the end, B ends up winning if enough people who voted for C, D and E picked B as their next choice before A.

No other state has ever used this.  A couple of cities have.  The results have often been that second choice candidate winds up winning.  Lots of people mess up the ballot and their votes get thrown out.

Millions of dollars from out of state put this on the ballot in 2016 and are funding this effort now.

California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed an attempt to implement RCV in his state and said: "Ranked Choice Voting is overly complicated and confusing.  I believe it deprives voters of a genuinely informed choice."

On June 12, vote NO on Question 1.  Tell your friends.

I don't know who dreamed that convoluted idea up or how the hell they got it thru an initiative vote but fully agree it's got to go.
The proponents will be out in force so we ALL need to be on this.
DON'T SIT THIS ONE OUT!

Matt Dunlap was talking about this stupid question on WGAN the other day... The way it was worded is completely stupid and well beyond the reading comprehension of I would guess the majority of the citizens.

It boggles my mind that this rank choice passed and I also honestly feel that my constitutional right to vote has been infringed upon with this method.

Truly pissed about this.

Sounds dumb.

Yes, the wording of the ballot question is just an unnecessarily confusing and complicated as ranked-choice voting.

VOTE NO!  Tell your friends.  Get them to go vote NO!

@Lawyerman
Can a voter just select a single candidate, to vote in favor of, or is it required that you "rank" them all?
If i select just one and leave the rest blank is it considered a "valid" ballot or will it be trashed?
May fux be upon whomever conjured up this wonderful concept!
Thanx...

You can vote for just one "first choice" candidate and mark no additional columns.  If the candidate you vote for in this way ends up being one of the top two vote getters after all of the rounds of counting, your vote will be counted.  If the person you vote for does not end up being in the top two, your ballot is "exhausted" and will not be counted.  You will not even be considered part of the denominator to calculate the overall percentages candidates receive.

This thing was billed as ensuring that anyone who wins gets a "majority."  But it does so by fuzzy math - by kicking people out of the denominator to inflate the percentages.  One of the examples on the Secretary of State's website shows this.

I'm new to the state so i'm kind of not so great with local politics but ranked choice seems like a recipe for disaster...

SO picture this, state that is 40% R  to 40% D, 10% greenies, 8%  swing voters, 2% actual National Socialist Party voters,

10 ballots select for R with greeenines being 2nd, and , actal Nazi's being 3rd and 4th being D's.
10 ballots with D being first, then greenies being second, and Nazi's being 3rd, R being last.
2 ballots being Nazi, then D, then greenies, even split on R/D
2 ballots for tree huggers, 2nd Nazi, even split on R/D
Swing voters are everywhere so no votes gained in any numbers.

If 1st on ballot is 4 points, 3rd 3, 2nd is 2 4th is 1.
your point totals would end up.
R 52,
D 52
Greenies 70
ACTUAL Nazi's 54

not sure if that is the way it was intended but as im playing it out it seems to be WAY too much emphasis on 3rd/4th tier parties. If there were a parliament/majority system then sure MAYBE it would be a workable system but as I just gamed it , NAZI's and greenies(making up 4 of 24 ballots, so 16% of population) literally took over the election, with actual big name/number parties being disenfranchised.

god yes that is a screwy worded ballot question.

I'll be voting against it but Cumberland and York counties are full of idiots so I don't have much hope that logic will win.

Well, Lepage has said he won't certify the vote and will leave it to the court. Guess he is going to go out swinging.

I was in Ireland during the runup to their national parliamentary (Dáil) election once.  This is the system they use and it is confusing as all hell.

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/06/12/june-2018-maine-election-results/

Crap, yes won 54-46

meh does not matter all that much. still unconstitutional , and they can just vote in another law next year banning it,

I love that the Dems are stuck dealing with waiting for days to choose a candidate and the Republicans are all set. Especially since this is their dumb ass  idea. Shawn Moody had a good showing I voted for him and have heard him talk several times he will be good for this state.

Edit for my bad spelling.

Really hope so.

I thought that was great also haha.