Ranked Choice Voting Supreme Court VICTORY! Please now help to win YES ON ONE in JUNE. THANKS!!

[LBM20]

The superior court and now the state supreme court have spoken! Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is the law of the land, period! And it will be used for the primaries in June and we will also vote to restore RCV permanently. We must win the YES ON ONE vote in June which PERMANENTLY haults the repeal law passed last fall and restores RCV permanently. Here are some facts to remember:

***** IF YOU WANT TO SEND A STRONG MESSAGE TO THOSE IN AUGUSTA, ESPECIALLY LEPAGE AND HIS MINIONS, WHO ARE ATTACKING ALL OUR REFERENDUMS, INCLUDING MEDICAID EXPANSION WHICH JUST PASSED WITH 59% OF THE VOTE AND IS ALSO HEAVILY UNDER ATTACK, THEN PLEASE DO ALL YOU CAN TO SUPPORT YES ON ONE IN JUNE.*****


1) RCV is entirely CONSTITUTIONAL for the June primaries and the November general elections for the federal offices. (The three general elections for the state offices in question are on hold and not included under the law as it now stands. So don't let anyone blather about it being unconstitutional. The courts have just affirmed it is constitutional for the seven elections not affected by the plurality clause in the state constitution. Plus it has been used in Portland for mayor since 2011. So RCV IS CONSTITUTIONAL!!!)

2) RCV is just Instant Runoff Voting. It is like traditional runoff elections except just done more efficiently through one ballot by ranking the candidates in elections that have more than two candidates. If after the first count someone gets a majority, it is DONE just like any other election. If no one gets a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and then it is down to the remaining candidates and the instant runoff kicks in. Those who voted for the eliminated candidate have their second choices votes considered in the next round of tabulation while those who voted for the top candidates continue to have their first choices counted. This continues until there is a majority winner.

3) Republicans like LePage and his minions have sadly turned this into a partisan issue. IT IS NON PARTISAN! In 2007 RCV was introduced in the Maine legislature with 5 Democratic sponsors AND five REPUBLICAN sponsors. When Baldacci was in office Republicans LOVED RCV. And they don't complain about the traditional runoff system for Lewiston Mayor. Why? Because in that case it has benefited their candidate. So don't let LePage, Republicans, and the naysayers LIE about RCV.

4) RCV is SIMPLE! It is NOT confusing or any other BS like that! A study done in Portland in 2011 showed 94% saying it was EASY. RCV ballots are simple and not at all difficult, and we already use multiple ballots. For example, ballots for multi candidate local races are different from traditional ballots, as are referendum ballots. So don't for a second allow them to get away with that nonsense.

5) RCV is ONE PERSON ONE VOTE! It is just a ranked choice vote, and again, works very much like a traditional runoff process just using ONE ballot. I don't hear anyone saying that Lewiston's traditional runoff in not one person one vote. So again, don't let the naysayers BS people with that pure BS.

6) You don't have to rank all the candidates if you don't want to. You can choose to rank as many or few as you want. Just like in a traditional runoff election, no one can be forced to return to vote in the runoff. This is the same thing. It is the voter's choice.


Please write letters to the editor in support of RCV, and you can sign up to help in other ways just by Googling MAINE COMMITTEE FOR RANKED CHOICE VOTING.

If you have questions, please let me know. THANKS!!