Maine

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Updated Report On Maine’s Initiative For Ranked Choice Voting

By Jon Olsen co-chair, Maine Green Independent Party November 16, 2017 A year ago, we in Maine, and especially we Greens who have worked to promote the issue of ranked choice voting (RCV) for at least 20 years, celebrated a huge victory after it passed with 52% approval in our citizen’s initiative that made it law. However, shortly thereafter, our opponents, for apparent personal or partisan reasons, sought the advice of the Maine Supreme Court regarding its constitutionality, a challenge relying on the distinction between “plurality” and “majority.” The public hearing where the matter was argued was packed, myself in…


Ranked Choice Voting

By Jon Olsen Well informed readers will know that we in Maine succeeded in becoming the first in the country to initiate a vote for ranked choice voting (RCV) statewide with a referendum and winning that vote 52-47 percent last November. However, there is a problem. The opponents of our victory requested the Maine Supreme Court to offer an opinion on its Constitutionality, on the basis of RCV in its function requires a majority for the final result, but the Constitution just mandates a plurality. We had legal experts of high caliber expressing the view that it was likely Constitutional,…