Posted on 09/06/2019 2:19:39 PM PDT by Chickensoup
I live in Maine’s Second Congressional District.
Democratic challenger Jared Golden, a state rep from Lewiston and former Marine, unseated Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin, even though Poliquin received 2,500 MORE votes.
Neither major candidate received 50.1% of the vote in the first round. There were two minor candidated on the ballot, both liberals, who received 8% of the vote collectively.
The voters who chose these two minor candidates had their second choice counted in the electronic run off, and most of them went to the democratic challenger, Jared Golden. After the second round was counted, Golden had more than 50.1% of the so-called vote.
There were court challenges, which the GOP incumbent lost. Rather than drag it on and leave the district without a representative, Bruce Poliquin, the GOP challenger, conceded the election.
The courts ruled that Rank Choice Voting can not apply to statewide elections in Maine, such as governor, because the Maine Constitution specifically mentions a “plurality” of votes, which the Federal Constitution does not.
Meanwhile, candidate Trump won the Second District in 2016 by 10 points.
Madame Hillary won the statewide vote by 2.9%, largely because of the liberal First District in the southeast corner of the state....20% of the land mass.
The Second District covers 80% of Maine....27,000 square miles, the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi in area.
When I voted in 2018, I picked only one candidate for Congress....I had no second choice. It’s called “bullet” voting.
As of July of 2019, there are 347,000 dem registered in Maine.
There are 287,000 registered Republicans.
Dems gained 9,000 registered voters since 2016, Republicans gained 2,000. A net gain for the dems of 7,000. I’m guessing that most of these gains were from the more liberal First District in the southeastern part of the state....north Massachusetts.
You didn't exactly lose—the Republican got the most votes—then lost. :(
Something stinks, I fear!
Ranked-choice voting is an excellent way of allowing voters to express their preferences without worrying about the “lesser of two evils” problem. It prevents an unpopular candidate from winning with a small plurality only because the opponents have split up the vote in too many different ways. It is similar in effect to having a runoff election when no candidate receives a majority, except that the runoff is instantaneous based on the already-stated ranked preferences of the voters.
As to the practical political impact, that will vary from state to state and from locality to locality. In some cases it will favor Democrats and liberals, while in other cases in will favor Republicans and conservatives — usually helping whichever side has an overall majority. That’s a good thing, unless you are trying to game the system by surreptitiously putting up fake candidates to split up the other side’s vote.
The democrats have been surruptiously fielding phony republican candidates here for at least a decade.
So rank choice is just an easier way to game the system.
Your response is a response of a person who believes in sportsmanship and honesty.
We live in a world of dishonesty and winner take all by any means possible.
Look at the FBI and the CIA and the Clintons, and the Bushes, and Obama and the state of California and every major Dem stronghold.
We are not on a playing field with honest referees, we are in a dirty war with no clear truth being reported.
Rank choice voting is another way for Dems to gain more power.
I’m just thinking under the rank choice system the greens are likely to mark down the democrat candidate as their second choice. The systems changes the playing field adds 30,000 more votes for the democrat in round two, if the greens vote at a 70% clip.
Right the Trump team should be knocking on doors in Maine. It’s going to take a lot of work to pick up independent voters, and reach out to non-voters. I’d set a target 0f 415,000, out of 825,000 voters, a 10 percent jump from 2016. You’ve got to set high goals so the mindset is to work to achieve it.
If you're worried about the Democrats fielding phony Republican candidates, then you should be supporting ranked choice. If there's one "good" Republican candidate and two or three "phony" ones, for example, the danger with the normal plurality system is that the phony ones would split up the Republican vote, thus allowing either a "phony" Republican or the Democrat to sneak in.
But with ranked choice, Republican voters can list all of the Republican candidates in their preferred orders. Then when a "phony" candidate gets a handful of percentage of the votes, that "phony" candidate's votes would be redistributed to the other Republican(s) on the ranked choice list. This would continue until someone received a majority of all votes. Under ranked choice, if the total number of Republican votes exceeded the total number of Democrat votes, then a Republican would win.
Of course the same logic applies in the other direction, if there are more overall Democrat-leaning voters than Republican-leaning voters. But hey, that's what elections are all about. If you want to win, that means your side needs to attract the most voters.
No both the dem and pubbies are on the same ballot and all get ranked
Thanks!
read post 21
Understood. How is that different than what I said?
I did read that post. I understand that in that particular race the Republican initially received a plurality of the vote, but subsequently lost when ranked-choice votes from minor candidates were redistributed and the Democrat achieved a majority.
My reaction is: So what? I don't base my analysis of a voting system on whether one particular election contest had a desirable or undesirable outcome. This time a Republican lost, next time it might be a Democrat. The lesson is that you should strive to attract an overall majority of the voters rather than trying to skate by with just a plurality.
Ranked Choice is word rape.
Ranked Voter Fraud is Democrat’s real deception.
1. Ann One
2. Ann Two
3. Ann Three
You vote for Ann Three who does not win. Democrats take your vote and fraudulently assign it to 1 or 2.
You may HATE candidate Ann Two, but some con artist used your vote for Ann Two.
Plurality is the ONLY real true vote scheme.
The basis for ALL of Democrat Voter Fraud, is creating votes that do not exist. Vote Harvesting & Ranked Voter Fraud are their latest scams. Until they go to prison, unelected Democrats will be spending your money.
Now Maine will use that same awful Ranked Choice Voting in the presidential election. Somehow I doubt that will help President Trump in Maine's 2nd District, but I'm not sure.
I don't know if the Susan Collins / Sara Gideon race will be decided via Ranked Choice. When we were in Maine last week, we noticed there are at least four candidates in that Senate race: Collins, Gideon, Linn (a supposed "Trump candidate") and a Green Party candidate.
Who do you think will win that Senate race? As much as RINO Collins annoys me, we need her more than democRAT Gideon in the Senate. Not sure if Linn is legit, or if he has any chance of winning.
Hello again...
Collins received 67% of the vote in 2014. I was ticked off at her back then, so I wrote in the name of a local businessman I know who ran unsuccessfully for the Maine Senate some years and the Maine House two years ago.
Both sides combined....Susan Collins and speaker of the Maine House Sarah Gideon are spending $55 million on this Senate race. The commercials on TV and radio are endless, including some really nasty ones. They started a year ago.
All four senate candidates had a debate the other night. Gideon came off as an angry witch with a little girl voice, like AOC.
To win, Susan Collins needs at least 50% of the vote plus at least one additional vote. If she does so, Rank Choice Voting will NOT kick in....it only applies when a federal candidate has less than 50% in the first round. I think Collins will win. We need to keep the Senate, even if Collins is a RINO.
Linn ran in the GOP primary in 2018. He lost, and Angus King was easily re-elected. A young GOP man by the name of Eric Brakey was the winner of the GOP primary, but lost to King in November.
I also listen to Howie Carr! Every day if I can. Howie Carr, for those who don’t know, has a conservative talk radio show every week day from 3 PM to 7 PM Eastern time, broadcast from Boston part of the time and from Palm Beach County, Florida in the fall and winter. Howie became a Florida resident recently.....before that, his show was always broadcast from Boston.
I think President Trump will do OK in the Second District. He won this district by 10 points in 2016. Don Jr. spoke at a military surplus store/gun shop/indoor firing range last week in Holden, Maine, near Bangor. At least 1,000 people were there. I wish I knew about it ahead of time. There were many young women in attendance, which was encouraging.
Jill Biden made an appearance in Blue Hill, Maine last Friday. A small group of people chatted with her, and she visited a lobster boat with a middle-aged woman captain.
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