Let me get this straight. In a vote in the Maine Senate on May 21, all the Republicans voted against L.D. 1477, which would have allowed the people of Maine to vote on whether to amend the state constitution to allow the use of ranked-choice voting in the general elections for governor and state legislative offices.

The use of ranked-choice voting has twice been approved by the people of Maine and used successfully in the primaries and in the general elections for federal offices. But ranked-choice voting is not being used in the general elections for state offices because the Maine Supreme Judicial Court concluded in an advisory opinion that we first have to amend the Maine Constitution.

To do that first requires a two-thirds vote in both branches of the Legislature, and Republicans don’t want to let the people have their say on the use of ranked-choice voting to ensure that all elected state officials are supported by a majority of voters.

Is that because Republicans worry, both in Maine and nationally, that they cannot win elections unless they can win with a plurality vote? Are they afraid that they cannot gain majority approval of their candidates? Is their only hope for election success that the Democrats and independents split the non-Republican vote? Doesn’t say much for Republican candidates and Republican ideas.

Bill Dunn

Yarmouth