Here’s how it would work: Voters would rank all candidates for sheriff and county commissioner in order of preference. If one candidate receives more than half the votes on the first ballot, that person would be declared the winner.

If not, the candidate with the fewest first-place votes would be eliminated, and the second-place choices of the losing candidate’s supporters would be counted. That process would be repeated until a clear winner emerges with more than 50 percent of the vote.

Supporters argue that instant runoff balloting encourages people to vote their conscience by eliminating the spoiler effect that happens when a political outsider siphons votes away from one major party candidate only to hand the victory to the other mainstream contender.

Ranked choice or instant runoff voting is already in use for some or all municipal offices in 11 U.S. cities, including San Francisco and Minneapolis, according to FairVote. Five states use the system for overseas voters in runoff elections, and eight cities have approved ranked choice voting for advisory, option or contingent measures, although half of those are still awaiting equipment or software upgrades before actually implementing the system.

And on Tuesday, voters in Maine were casting their ballots on Question 5, a statewide ballot measure that would implement ranked choice voting for major offices including members of Congress, governor and state legislators. It was leading in early returns.

Reporter Bennett Hall can be reached at 541-758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter at @bennetthallgt.

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