Maine residents have approved a ballot question that will allow voters to rank their choice of candidates.

Under the election overhaul, ballots are counted at the state level in multiple rounds. Last place candidates are eliminated until a candidate wins by a majority.

The voting style will apply to races for U.S. senate, U.S. representative, governor, state senate and state representative.

Proponents of ranked choice voting say it will prevent a governor from being elected with less than 50 percent of the votes. That was the scenario when Gov. Paul LePage was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.

Ranked choice voting is sometimes also called "instant runoff."