this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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Ranked Choice Voting

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Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a voting system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, they are declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and votes for that candidate are redistributed to the remaining candidates, based on the next preference on each ballot. This process continues until one candidate has a majority. Learn more about how it works.

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[Maine] Golden objects to ranked-choice voting in second district race (www.wmtw.com)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The incumbent Democrat argues he already received a majority of the votes, while the secretary of state says neither candidate did.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

For those who didn't read the article:

Golden's attorney's (Peter Brann's) argument: "Based on my read of the relevant statutes and regulations, if a candidate receives more than 50% of the votes that contain a first choice, RCV is not used to determine the winner. Thus, if the first choice on a ballot is left blank, that would not be considered in determining whether the candidate exceeded the 50% threshold."

Secretary of State's (Shenna Bellows') response: “Under Maine election law, 'blanks' may well include write-ins for someone other than the three official candidates. Given that more than 12,000 voters made a first choice that was not either Congressman Golden or Representative Theriault, it is mathematically possible that the second choices of those voters could change the outcome. For that reason, the law requires that we proceed with the ranked choice voting tabulation."

TL;DR: Should ballots whose first choice is blank be considered when determining whether a candidate exceeded the 50% threshold? Golden says no, Secretary of State says yes.