Ranked-choice voting adopted in Maine

In the election this month, Maine voters decided in favor of a ballot question that read as follows:

“Do you want to allow voters to rank their choices of candidates in elections for U.S. Senate, Congress, Governor, State Senate, and State Representative, and to have ballots counted at the state level in multiple rounds in which last-place candidates are eliminated until a candidate wins by majority?”

Before the election, some people wrote to the Gazette asking the community to choose the candidate they would most believe in. Ranked-choice voting would support the electorate in forming decisions based on conscience and principle. It could also make it easier for new parties to gain a following.

My one caution about ranked-choice voting is that its complexity would probably increase our reliance on computers in tabulating results, and could make it harder to recognize if there was any miscounting of votes.

Mary H. Hall

South Hadley