[Lnc-business] Maine Question 5 (Ranked Choice Voting)

[William Redpath]

>From ballotpedia.org:

Ballot question

The question will appear on the ballot as follows:[2][3]
“ 	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?[4] 	”
Ballot summary

The official ballot summary is as follows:[1]
“ 	This initiated bill provides ranked-choice voting for the offices of United States Senator, United States Representative to Congress, Governor, State Senator and State Representative for elections held on or after January 1, 2018. Ranked-choice voting is a method of casting and tabulating votes in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, tabulation proceeds in rounds in which last-place candidates are defeated and the candidate with the most votes in the final round is elected.

[4]
	”
Full text

The full text of the measure can be found here.
Support
Yeson5Maine.png
RCVMaine.jpeg

The campaign in support of Question 5 is being led by the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting.[5]

The initiative was proposed by Rep. Diane Russell (D-39) and former Sen. Dick Woodbury (I-11). Both were proponents of ranked-choice voting in the state legislature, but their bills never passed.[6] Rep. Russell, speaking about Question 5, said, "I think the voters are hungry for a system that allows them to vote their hopes." Former Sen. Woodbury said, "Under the current ‘winner-take-all-system,’ the entire system is about polling and spoilers. That’s not what’s great about democracy."[7]

As part of the campaign in support of Question 5, the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting held several "beer election" events to demonstrate how ranked choice voting works.[8] A schedule of the events can be found here.
Supporters
Organizations

    Maine Democratic Party[9]
    Libertarian Party of Maine
    Maine Green Independent Party
    League of Women Voters of Maine[10]

--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 10/3/16, Starchild <sfdreamer at earthlink.net> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] Maine Question 5 (Ranked Choice Voting)
 To: lnc-business at hq.lp.org
 Date: Monday, October 3, 2016, 6:41 PM
 
 	Sounds good on the face of
 it. Bill, can you provide a link to the text of Maine's
 Question 5?
 Love &
 Liberty,                           
        ((( starchild )))At-Large
 Representative, Libertarian National Committee 
                               (415)
 625-FREE
 
 On Oct 3, 2016, at 3:38
 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
 I'll cosponsor.
 Joshua
 A. KatzWestbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R
 seat)
 
 On
 Mon, Oct 3, 2016 at 7:11 AM, William Redpath <wredpath2 at gmail.com>
 wrote:
 Dear Colleagues:  I am
 looking for co-sponsors for the following resolution:
 
 "The Libertarian
 National Committee supports Question 5 in Maine on the
 ballot on November 8, 2016."
 
 Information:  If Question 5 passes,
 Maine will use Ranked Choice Voting in all elections
 starting on January 1, 2018, for Governor, State House,
 State Senate, US House of Representatives and US Senate.
 
 Why I support Question 5
 (and have made a personal donation to RCV Maine):  RCV
 would, at the very least, do away with the "Wasted Vote
 Syndrome" associated with third party and independent
 candidates.  This would, at least, lead to more earned
 media and fewer debate exclusions.  I think if RCV were
 being used for this Presidential election, Gary Johnson and
 Bill Weld would have been included in all four debates.
 
 I ask my colleagues to
 co-sponsor this email ballot and to vote "Yes" on
 it.
 
 Thanks, Bill
 Redpath
 
 
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