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Common Dreams reports
Election reform advocates on [April 18] praised a decision by Maine's Supreme Court, upholding the use of ranked-choice voting for the state's upcoming primary elections, saying the ruling demonstrated that the court heeded the demands of Maine voters.
[...]Unlike in traditional voting, in which the candidate with the largest share of votes wins--even if he or she is far from capturing a majority of the support--in ranked choice voting, voters rank each candidate in order of preference. If no candidate has a majority after the first count, the least-popular contender is eliminated, voters' ballots are added to the totals of their second-ranked candidates, and the ballots are recounted. The eliminations and recounts continue until one candidate has a majority.
Supporters of the system say it increases voter turnout and proportional representation.
Maine's June 12 multi-party primary elections, in which voters will choose candidates for governor and congressional districts, will now make history as the first state election to use ranked-choice voting.
Fifty-two percent of Maine voters supported the system in a November 2016 ballot initiative, but lawmakers passed a bill last year delaying its implementation until December 2021 and argued that the state could not use a new voting system without direction from the legislature. The state Senate also threatened to repeal ranked-choice voting altogether if it could not pass a constitutional amendment by then.
More than 77,000 Maine residents signed a petition saying any repeal of the system by the legislature should be voided.
"The Maine legislature has changed or repealed all four of the initiatives passed by Maine voters in 2016", said Kyle Bailey of the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting in a statement on Tuesday. "Today's decision by the Maine Supreme Court confirms that the Maine people are sovereign and have the final say."
The Portland Press Herald, Maine's largest circulation daily newspaper, has extensive background details in their April 17th story: Ranked-choice voting will be used for June primaries, Maine supreme court rules.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday April 19 2018, @04:06PM (8 children)
I agree that's definitely a cultural difference: In New England, the way of dealing with political problems is to use the structures of government to address them and force the government to adhere to the people's wishes. In Tennessee, the way of dealing with political problems is apparently to shoot somebody.
I'm also not convinced by your theory: Say, for instance, that the governor does something you don't like. So you shoot and kill him. The cops and FBI and any of that governor's supporters, in turn, shoot and kill you (or alternately arrest you, try you, and fry you). The governor is replaced by another governor from the Republicrat Party, who then proceeds to continue implementing the policy you didn't like. So not only are you dead, but you didn't even achieve your goal in assassinating the governor in the first place.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @05:22PM
TMB uses lame rhetoric to cover his responsibility as a citizen. Lazy.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday April 19 2018, @06:23PM
> the way of dealing with political problems is apparently to shoot somebody.
Nope. They are good God-fearing citizens.
They polish their guns dreaming that one day, maybe soon now, they will be called upon to heroically rise against government oppression, and get to shoot somebody.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @06:55PM (1 child)
you assume assassinating the twat isn't almost equally about sending a message to all his buddies
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @10:52PM
>you assume assassinating the twat isn't almost equally about sending a message to all his buddies
Signed,
Astonishingly Tolerant Gun-Hating Liberal
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday April 19 2018, @07:03PM (3 children)
So how many freedom fighters would have to die before they got the picture?
Thomas Jefferson
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @08:20PM (2 children)
I don't know, you tell me. The government is conducting unconstitutional mass surveillance on the populace, waging a war on drugs, waging several unconstitutional and unjust wars overseas, hiring thugs to violate people's rights at airports, and so on. Where are all these freedom fighters with guns? Why do they sit back and do nothing except spew empty rhetoric about revolution?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 19 2018, @09:20PM
They're waiting for the 2nd Amendment to be repealed. Lol.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Friday April 20 2018, @01:21PM
"Why do they sit back and do nothing"
So your argument is that law abiding gun owners aren't out killing people they don't agree with politically, so they should lose their guns?
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