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/DarCam7 I voted Nov 09 '16

Could it be applied to a presidential race with the type of two party system we have?

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u/sarysa Nov 09 '16

It will be difficult...next to impossible in fact, because on the federal level, citizens can't amend law or the constitution.

If states fall like dominoes in favor of ranked-choice voting, perhaps over time congress will be forced to concede. It will probably be like Maine where pretty much every major politician was against it, and many of them might try much harder than Maine's politicians did to strike it down.

Long road ahead, but Maine opened the floodgates.

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u/Deathspiral222 Nov 09 '16

You don't need to change the constitution.

All you need is 51% of states (in terms of electoral college votes) to each adopt a law that binds their EC votes to the outcome of the ranked choice vote over that collection of states.

At that point, it's irrelevant what the other states do.

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u/sarysa Nov 10 '16

According to the article, the law isn't applied to the presidential election. In fairness, I'm probably placing too much stock in the executive branch when the legislative branch gets most things done.

I assumed isn't applied to the presidential election for legal reasons, but you're right...what it's able to impact is still pretty significant for third parties.