Thanks to ranked-choice voting, independent-minded Marty Grohman ran in 2018’s 1st District Congressional race and Zak Ringelstein ran for U.S. Senate.

Although neither of these candidates was elected, they argued well for positions that I hope are influencing the winners in those races: Marty spoke of the need to find areas of agreement in Congress, and Zak emphasized the outsized influence of large financial contributors on lawmaking. One of them got my first vote as an attempt to bolster his argument.

L.D. 1083 would extend ranked-choice voting to the presidential primary and general election in Maine. This would encourage wider voter participation by shifting selection of party candidates to primary voting instead of caucuses.

Passage of L.D. 1083 would help select the strongest candidate for each party and avoid the possibility of vote splitting in the presidential election of November 2020.

Brian Burwell
 
Freeport