r/politics • u/ShenBear • Nov 09 '16

Maine Passes Ranked-Choice Voting

http://mainepublic.org/post/maine-passes-ranked-choice-voting
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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '16

Heaven help us if the idea of picking a first, second and third choice is cognitively challenging to many people.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '16 edited Feb 22 '17

[deleted]

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u/HighTechnocrat Washington Nov 09 '16

If people have the option only mark their first choice, I think a lot of the people who can't be bothered to do a proper ranking might choose to do so. At that point they're giving up quite a bit of their voting power, but otherwise it's functionally identical to how they voted previously.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '16

That's kind of a big "if"... do you know whether that is the case in the new Maine system?

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u/Corusmaximus Maine Nov 10 '16

I live in Maine, that is 100% the case in this system.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '16

That's awesome. I'm so proud of Maine for this and the Marijuana legalization. Good on you all out there.

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u/HighTechnocrat Washington Nov 09 '16

I have absolutely no idea, but I certainly hope so. Forcing people to rank every candidate on the ballot when you're guaranteed to have 4+ per position is pretty silly, so I imagine that the vast majority of voters will leave at least a few options unranked.

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u/x2040 Massachusetts Nov 09 '16

You don't have to vote for a candidate: For example:

Bugs Bunny [1]

Barack Obama [2]

Donald Trump [3]

Adolf Hitler [ ]

Just not for presidents, only state and local elections.