ranked choice voting / instant runoff elections

[darkoshi]

Maine has become the first state in the country to pass ranked choice voting (for state-wide races). A similar measure was passed in Benton County, Oregon, for county elections.

Maine is also one of only two states (the other being Nebraska) which allows their electoral college votes to be split between candidates (though so far it hasn't happened in Maine, and only once in Nebraska). They use the "Congressional District Method", whereby for example:

Nebraska has five electoral votes, as it has three Congressional districts and two Senators. Two of these electoral votes automatically go to the winner of the popular vote. The other three go to the winner of the popular vote within each district.

So it still isn't a proportionate split based on the popular vote, but isn't always necessarily winner-takes-all as in the other states.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Maine going that way is one of the few things about the recent votes that's made me happy.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

The reasoning for winner-takes-all is so that little states like us get attention, rather than the presidential candidates spending all their time in California and Texas. I can see the point in that, but it also leads to frustrating results. Which is worse?

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Also one of my hot buttons is mail-in ballots. Washington and Colorado both use them, and have very high voter participation compared to most other states. I'd like to see that expanded.