Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to letters@bangordailynews.com
There is an important bill before the Legislature, LD 1917, that would uphold the wishes of Maine voters to have ranked-choice voting be in effect for all elections in Maine. This was already passed in a referendum in 2016, but due to language in the Maine Constitution, it did not apply to certain elections for state office. We essentially ended up with two election systems — one for federal and for state and local. This bill would remove the uncertainty of which type of election we were having by making them all ranked-choice voting.
I think ranked-choice voting is the fairest way to give every voter an equal say in who they want to elect. The concern expressed by some people that it is hard to understand was very effectively addressed in public testimony. If there are three or more candidates, you put them in order from best to worst. (Or if there’s only one person you like, you can just vote for them and leave the others blank.)
People in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Malta, Northern Ireland and Scotland use ranked-choice voting without any difficulties.
People should please contact their legislators now and ask them to support LD 1917, to honor the directives of a majority of Maine voters and to have ranked choice voting for all elections.
Thanks to Sen. Cameron Reny and Rep. Lydia Crafts for sponsoring this bill.
Tom Keller
Newcastle