Updated on June 13, 2018.

What do Australia, the Oscars and the state of Maine have in common?

Not much, except a somewhat esoteric method of voting. The Oscars and Australia — and Ireland and several American cities — have used this method, called ranked choice voting, for years.

Maine tried it for the first time on Tuesday, becoming the first American state in modern times to use it statewide in multiple races, including to pick party nominees for governor.

Maine’s primary was being watched closely, more for its use of ranked choice voting than for who wins. For the second time in two years, Maine voters have backed ranked-choice voting, making the state the first in the country to use the method in which they rank their preferred candidates instead of choosing just one. The outcome in Maine could be a turning point in efforts to revamp how Americans conduct elections.

“If it passes, it will be huge,” Richard Winger, editor and publisher of Ballot Access News, which tracks election issues nationwide and supports ranked choice voting, said in an interview before the primary.