Jared Golden has just won the Maine 2 Congressional race unseating incumbent Republican Representative Bruce Poliquin.
The results of the Ranked Choice Voting tabulation requiring 50% plus 1 majority were :
Golden (D) 139,231 50.5%
Poliquin (R) 136,326 49.5%
Lessons : 1. when all the votes are counted, Democrats usually win. 2. Massachusetts needs to make RCV the law.
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1. Awesome!
2. Support our growing movement today! Voter Choice Massachusetts
I have supported Ranked Choice Voting from day one for this very reason. Alexandra Chandler and Katherine Clark canvassed together for Jared weeks before the election.
James, does this win mean we now have an all Democrat House Congressional delegation in New England ?
This win should give momentum to make Massachusetts the second state with RCV!
In the House for sure. In the Senate, we still have pesky Susan Collins to deal with. With RCV her days should be numbered as well.
I actually think RCV may SAVE Collins in 2020. I think it’s clear that NOTHING will save her in a GOP primary. She has to run as an independent if she want to get reelected. All she has to do is finish 2nd and hold the top voter getter below 50%. The voters of the 3rd place candidate (either the Dem or Rep) most certainly will have cast their 2nd choice with Collins, giving her the win just like Golden scored here.
How do you see Collins’ days numbered with RCV?
Let’s say Senator Collins runs as an Indy. Here’s a plausible outcome:
At the first round, you’ve got
At the second round, you’ve got
Collins loses, despite being the 1st or 2nd choice of every single voter. The “coming in second and holding the top-getter to under 50%” isn’t an obvious outcome for her. And, there may well be people who are so angry with her that they’d rather vote for the other party than her, just cuz.
Where we really needed RCV was the CD3 primary. I think your candidate would have done quite well if we had.
Alexandra Chandler won 2 pre-primary RCV polls in CD-3 indicating that she was the second choice of a majority of voters. To my dying day I will believe if we had RCV she would have topped the ten candidate field.
And I get to crow that our Song of Resistance roster went 4 for 5 — and the one loss was Beto O’Rourke, who had significant coattails in TX.
I will celebrate appropriately.
The subhead should be: “In tight race, 3rd-parties are not spoilers, pleasing their voter”
The Democratic Party should find a way to adopt this for its internal elections (if legally possible) since the CD3 is a great example of how a crowded field results in an unfair result with first past the post. I would also add that in states with strong third party traditions like Maine, that the RCV helps Democrats get elected by eliminating the spoiler effect. A win-win for small and big D Democrats alike.
Pretty sure that would require a law change.