Two-term U.S. Representative Bruce Poliquin, the only Republican member of Congress in New England, got about 2,000 more votes than his nearest competitor, a Democrat, on election day last week.
So he won re-election, right?
Actually, probably not.
Maine two years ago adopted a ranked-choice voting system that asks voters to pick not only the candidate they want to win, but also their second choice. (And third choice, and fourth choice …)
It’s used as a sort of tie-breaker, if no candidate gets an outright majority of votes cast. Except that it’s not really a tie-breaker, since the top two candidates aren’t tied – one of them got more votes than the other, but could still lose. So really, it’s an election flipper.
That’s because in Poliquin’s race two independent candidates who got tiny fractions of the vote will determine the outcome. Or rather, their supporters will, from a kind of immediate second-chance voting.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
3 comments:
That's the stupidest thing I ever heard of.
It’s actually the most accurately representative way of voting out there - it ensures nobody throws their vote away. If used here in MD it would probably up the republican representation and break the dem supermajorities in the state legislature.
That is becasue you all are stupid and keep being hood winked
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