While we've all been distracted by the fallout of Donald Trump's unexpected election as president, another important political story has been unfolding under the radar. At the same time that Hillary Clinton lost the presidency, despite getting three million more votes than Trump, voters in New England (the birthplace of the American Revolution) and Prince Edward Island (the birthplace of Canadian confederation) delivered an unprecedented one-two punch to the archaic and dysfunctional first-past-the-post voting system.

In two referendums, one on each side of the border, residents of Maine voted in favour of switching the entire state over to ranked choice voting (RCV) and two days earlier voters in P.E.I. embraced a system called mixed member proportional (MMP).

Both of these systems offer distinct benefits to voters and offer a glimpse of hope that we can overcome the democratic deficit in both countries. First-past-the-post feeds cynicism and apathy because it distorts election results, pushes out new voices, forces people to vote 'strategically', encourages negative campaigns and produces predominantly white/male governments that do not reflect the diversity of the population. Both RCV and MMP, on the other hand, help to cure some of these problems.

This creates a more open and inclusive political atmosphere that can help break up the oligopoly of our major parties.

Let's look at Maine first. Using ranked choice voting, voters are asked to rank their top three choices on their ballot. Easy as 1,2,3. On election night, all the first-choice picks are counted and if any candidate has more than 50 per cent of the vote, he or she is declared the winner. But if no one has a clear majority then the candidate with the fewest votes in eliminated and his or her votes are transferred to the second choice marked on each ballot. This repeats until one candidate has won a majority. This means that no one can win a race against the will of the majority. It also means that candidates can't be accused of being a "spoiler" and that people can vote with their heart, knowing that a vote for an obscure candidate will not be "wasted."

This creates a more open and inclusive political atmosphere that can help break up the oligopoly of our major parties. Ranked ballots also encourage more positive and civil campaigns, as candidates try to secure second-preference votes from their opponents' supporters. The victory for Maine's proposition #5 means that all future state election will be held using a ranked ballot, including races for U.S. senator, U.S. representative to Congress, governor, state senator and state representative. While some municipalities such as Minneapolis and San Francisco have already switched to ranked ballots, the referendum in Maine marks the first time that an entire state will be switching away from first-past-the-post.

In P.E.I., a completely different system was chosen by voters. MMP is a proportional system that goes even further than RCV. While the reform in Maine ensures that the majority is heard, proportional systems are designed to ensure that all votes count equally, and that the elected government reflects the same percentages of the popular vote. For example, if 10 per cent vote for the Green Party then 10 per cent of the seats are awarded to the Greens. Sounds like an obvious way to run an election, but first-past-the-post doesn't even come close to achieving this simple goal. In Canada, for example, the Liberal Party has 54 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons, despite having won only 39.5 per cent of the vote.