Defeat Snatched From the Jaws of Victory

I was very excited on June 19th to hear that the Maine legislature had passed LD 1083, which would have finally implemented ranked voting for Presidential elections. But then thanks to some technicality the Senate had to pass it a second time, failed to do so, and adjourned for the session. So close, yet infinitely far away.

I’ve been waiting for ranked voting for at least the Presidential vote since I was fifteen (Ralph Nader, Indecision 2000, and an excellent American Government teacher all happened in the same year and ruined me), and it’s maddening how something so sensible is perpetually impossible to implement.

Imagine being able to vote for the party you really want to win with a middling mainstream candidate as your backup: instead of having to weigh how many people will never speak to you again because you voted "wrong", and violating everything you believe in so the slightly less shitty party can win (and the all-knowing politicos then using the lack of third party votes as self-fulfilling proof that no one supports major political change).

I’m hoping once one state successfully uses ranked voting for a general election it’ll spread to the rest quickly—it feels like shutting down the bullshit argument that voters are too stupid to count to three or four is the last significant propaganda barrier to breach. But it looks like we’re gonna have to wait at least another Presidential election cycle to prove the naysayers wrong :-\