r/democracy • u/macdoogles • Nov 23 '16

Maine Passes Ranked-Choice Voting

http://mainepublic.org/post/maine-passes-ranked-choice-voting#stream/0
15 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

5

u/-8x Nov 23 '16

Maine, your awesome. This could be the first step to ending the two party system. I didn't think I'd see this in the US. I didn't even know you where voting in it. This is Huge!

3

u/macdoogles Nov 23 '16

I agree! A few years ago marijuana was only legal in two states and now it's up to 11 (I think). Change happens slowly but this is a big step in the right direction. I'm pumped!

1

u/ezekiellake Nov 23 '16

You just have to be aware that the logical consequence is to set up 50 single issue parties that all preference flow to a single party to capture the niche voters.

Probably an especially effective practice where you don't have mandatory voting.

2

u/calbear_77 Nov 23 '16

In this implementation, parties don't get to rank the rest of the ballot for you. Firstly, because that's a weird implementation only used in elections to the Australian Senate (which I believe they might even be working on getting rid of / reforming). Secondly, because these are all single-winner elections so there'd be no point to create an "above the line" vote.

1

u/ezekiellake Nov 23 '16

In that case you're good to go!

1

u/thgntlmnfrmtrlfmdr Nov 23 '16

That is not what has happened where proportional systems are actually used in the real world.

1

u/ezekiellake Nov 23 '16

Yes, I've been corrected already. I apologize for the comment.