Voter remorse is a hot topic these days, so it wasn’t surprising to see Kent Ward weigh in with his Feb. 26 column “Voter remorse should not be factor in elections.”
But since Ward used an e-mail from me as fodder in praising Rep. Robert Nutting’s bill to prevent absentee ballot “do-overs,” I would like to at least provide some context for that e-mail, and call attention to a larger, more important reform also before the Legislature.
Those of us working for Eliot Cutler last fall endured well-coordinated and self-serving efforts from the political parties to convince voters that Eliot couldn’t win, that he was just a spoiler. Some prominent interest groups, joined in as well, urging their members to vote early.
Looking back at the elections of Independent governors Jim Longley and Angus King, we were confident that Eliot would follow their path and surge late. Sure enough, in mid-October, sparked by a strong endorsement from this newspaper, the campaign took off.
In those final hectic days of the campaign, we heard from many early voters who now regretted their decision. So many, in fact, our legal counsel asked the Secretary of State’s office for guidance. Here is what they told us and the other gubernatorial campaigns:
“Any voter who wishes to show up in person at their town office (provided the town has not yet begun to process absentee ballots) to request a second absentee ballot on the grounds that their first ballot does not reflect their voter intent may do so and vote a challenged ballot.”
That’s what prompted my e-mail. It didn’t generate many new ballot requests. We didn’t expect it to. Sure, if got us a few extra votes legally, we gladly would have taken them, but we weren’t trying to subvert the entire electoral process.
As Ward notes, the unfortunate part of all this is the confusion that it caused among city and town clerks, who certainly have their hands full with enough other issues on election day. So if Rep. Nutting’s bill settles the confusion once and for all, great.
But now that we’ve taken care of that issue, let’s give some serious attention to a truly substantive piece of election reform: Sen. Tom Saviello’s proposed constitutional amendment (LD 607) to require that the governor be elected by a majority of voters.
Today, candidates in multicandidate races such as the one we just had in Maine know that they don’t have to appeal to a broad spectrum of Maine people to get elected. They can pander to their ideological base and cynically calibrate their campaigns to appeal to the little more than the third of the voters they need to win.
Unfortunately, that leaves a big majority — such as the nearly two-thirds of us who voted for someone other than the governor last November — out in the cold when it comes to governing.
Many of our governors over the last four decades have been elected without a majority, and we can expect that trend to continue as the major parties weaken and more candidates take the Independent route. I think we pay a price for repeatedly electing “minority” governors.
How do we create a long-term vision for Maine when the game is all about short-term advantage and my party winning by your party losing? How can we realistically build consensus around major policy issues? What happens to the majority in the middle, who just want to see our state live up to its full potential?
Requiring a majority is one of those common-sense ideas that should transcend partisanship and ideology. Yes, a runoff or some other system might cost money, but it will be a paltry sum compared with the benefits of having a leader who can take on the big issues armed with the confidence and support of a majority of Maine people.
Rep. Nutting’s legislation clarifies a technical issue; Sen. Saviello’s constitutional amendment is a fundamental, long-overdue reform that deserves our support.
Ted O’Meara is managing principal for public affairs at Garrand, an advertising and public relations firm. He was the manager of independent Eliot Cutler’s campaign for governor and a former chairman of the Maine Republican Party.