Maine independent U.S. Sen. Angus King says he will vote to keep ranked-choice voting in next week’s referendum vote.

“A high number of voters said this is something they want," King says, "and I don’t like the idea that we essentially voided what the voters said.”

King says he was reluctant to publicly comment on the ranked-choice voting referendum because some will say he is doing so to benefit his re-election campaign.

King says the process amounts to an instant run off. "And many states have runoffs but this is a way of doing it without all the time, trouble and money of having a separate election.”

King says he also likes the idea of making sure that an elected official has the support of a majority of voters.

He acknowledges, though, that if ranked-choice voting had been constitutional in 1994, he might not have been elected Maine's governor back then. King served two terms in the post, from 1995 to 2003.