Conservative pushback at progressive voting policies in the past few years has ramped up. The most divisive of these for Maine voters is the Ranked Choice Voting System that allows voters to rank the candidates in order of preference. This is a good system that creates opportunities for all candidates in Maine, but conservatives are levying attacks against it and wish to see it go away.
Conservative critics of Ranked Choice Voting believe that it’s unconstitutional. They argue that ranked choice is the same as voting three times and it nullifies the principle of One Person One Vote. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how ranked choice voting works. Your vote only counts once, but the ranked choice system determines who it counts for. During vote counting, the candidate with the least amount of votes is knocked out. If they’re your first pick then your vote is counted for your second pick. It still gives you the ability to prioritize a candidate while also considering who you would want to vote for if that person wasn’t an option. It doesn’t mean you’re voting for both of them, it means you’re ranking how you want that vote to go.
This system is great because it enables third-party candidates in Maine to hold weight that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. This system fits Maine in specific because we’re a uniquely bipartisan state as a whole, with the ability to sway our votes in the Electoral College System.
In other states, a third-party candidate is not likely to stand a chance. In Maine, the Ranked Choice Voting system allows for voters to prioritize the third-party candidate while also recognizing that a third-party vote still may not have enough backing to go through. They’re able to essentially pick their second-choice and that candidate can instead get the vote. This is an automatic thing when votes are counted, it’s not as if voters get to just change their vote.
Being a third-party voter requires a sense of realism to recognize that a third-party candidate is not always going to be the best use of a vote. Ranked Choice Voting grants voters that flexibility to use their vote to its most efficient ability.
A huge problem in modern politics is that the two-party system has pushed political polarity to its furthest extreme. Now, more than ever, it’s important for voters to be able to push for a middle-ground solution to some issues. Ranked Choice Voting is a move in the right direction for allowing a third-party vote to mean something.
When it comes to a presidential election, a third-party vote is generally considered a waste of a vote. This is true in states without ranked choice. Ranked Choice Voting means that a third-party vote is not a waste. This is good and necessary for American democracy. Conservatives who push against it are scared of becoming the third choice in a vote of three candidates. We shouldn’t let that fear stall our progress and the best workable system for our elections.
