Maine voters likely to pass ranked choice voting initiative - Polidicks

[t]http://i.imgur.com/VhU6lBu.jpg[/t] [url]http://www.pressherald.com/2016/09/29/poll-suggests-mainers-open-to-changing-the-way-they-vote/[/url] [quote]Maine voters are trying to make up their minds about being first in the nation to use a ranked choice system to vote for members of Congress, the Legislature and governor. A recent Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center shows that 48 percent of likely voters support the ranked choice method. However, the poll also found that 23 percent of voters were undecided and 29 percent will vote against the change.[/quote] [url=https://ballotpedia.org/Maine_Ranked_Choice_Voting_Initiative,_Question_5_(2016)]According to Ballotpedia[/url] there is no organised opposition to the proposal

There's literally no reason to not support this. It gives people more say in their government.

My god, could this be the start of a less terrible voting system in America? Maine starts it off and the rest of the States see that its good and follow suit? Nah, who am I kidding.

Fucking right we are

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't this possibly completely solve the problem of not "wasting a vote" on a third candidate? If, for example, someone wanted to vote for Stein, but was worried about Trump, their vote could still effectively count for Clinton when it comes down to it unless Trump somehow gets >50% on the first round- in which case a first choice for Clinton wouldn't have mattered anyway.

[QUOTE=Canesfan;51165727]Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't this possibly completely solve the problem of not "wasting a vote" on a third candidate? If, for example, someone wanted to vote for Stein, but was worried about Trump, their vote could still effectively count for Clinton when it comes down to it unless Trump somehow gets >50% on the first round- in which case a first choice for Clinton wouldn't have mattered anyway.[/QUOTE] Exactly! Ranked-choice helps avoid split-vote elections like the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_gubernatorial_election,_2010]2010 Maine gubernatorial[/url]. Frankly I think it should be implemented in every state across the country, not to mention in presidential elections. That way we can avoid repeating the same outcome on a nationwide scale like what happened in 2000 with Bush and Gore. Seriously thankful to all the people who collected the signatures needed to help the initiative get this far!

[QUOTE=Canesfan;51165727]Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't this possibly completely solve the problem of not "wasting a vote" on a third candidate? If, for example, someone wanted to vote for Stein, but was worried about Trump, their vote could still effectively count for Clinton when it comes down to it unless Trump somehow gets >50% on the first round- in which case a first choice for Clinton wouldn't have mattered anyway.[/QUOTE] That's the whole point, and it makes sense to have it in any system where there's a cut-off. Even here in Germany we could use it, since parties that get less than 5% of the vote are excluded without alternative (which partially isn't a bad thing, but if one side of the spectrum ever seriously fragments we'll have a huge problem). Just make sure voters can still choose only one option if they really want to for some reason. There isn't really a practical reason not to allow that, but denying it would almost certainly cause more unintentionally invalid votes. [editline]8th October 2016[/editline] The issue with gerrymandering will most likely remain until you get actual proportional representation though.