This is the same system that put two Democrats and no Republicans on the ballot for US Senator in California.
I hope Bruce pulls this out. However I have a question, does the House have the final say as to who it’s members are? If Golden’s ahead after rank choice round 2 0r 3, I can see the Dems seating him, even if the courts rule for Poliquin.
From The National Conference on State Legislatures: ALTERNATIVE VOTING SYSTEMS, October 20, 2017 (who knew there was such an organization?):
Given that it is facing challenges in Maine Supreme Judicial Court and Maine Constitutional questions, I'm surprised they went ahead with it. You KNOW Democrats would be screaming Holy Hell if they were in a position to lose and the issue was up for consideration by the State Supreme Court.Some states use runoff elections for primaries; one state, Alabama, uses instant runoff elections, aka ranked choice voting, for its uniformed and overseas citizen absentee voters (UOCAVA) voters. Read Alabama's explanation of the state's process, and see NCSL’s webpage on primary runoffs.
Maine is the only state in the country to have established the use of ranked-choice voting for all congressional and state elections. The state adopted a citizens’ initiative in November 2016 to move the state toward a system of ranked-choice voting for elections for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor, State Senator and State Representative starting in 2018. The measure was challenged in court, however, and in May 2017 the Maine Supreme Judicial Court found that parts of it violated the state constitution. The Maine Constitution calls for some candidates to be selected by plurality, rather than ranked according to preference. It remains to be seen whether the legislature will amend the constitution, or to repeal the ranked choice voting measure, or use it for some offices and not others.
Many large cities in the U.S. use ranked-choice voting including St. Paul, Minn., Portland, Maine and four cities in the Bay Area of California. Some cities, such as Cambridge, Mass., and Minneapolis, Minn., use ranked-choice voting in multimember districts. In these cases, the percentage of the vote needed to win a seat declines in relation to the number of seats to be elected.
Also known as "preferential voting," ranked choice voting is widely used in private associations, including more than 50 American colleges and for political party elections.
Where is this a whole lot different than a run-off if neither candidate gets over 50%? The fact of the matter is that states can run their own elections and there is nothing illegal about ranked choice.
The secretary of state has declared Golden the winner. Bleep rank choice, bleep the GOP in Maine. I’ve got to find out when the next state GOP meeting is. I think they choose their officers in January. We need a whole new executive team, and new field operatives at Higgins street to put together a two year operation to take back this state fro the progressives.
The Ethan Strimling Consolation Prize.
He didn’t get to be governor and he foisted this mess on to us.
I just voted for my choice in each race and ignored the rest of the ballot.