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*The Problem with Ranked-Choice Voting*


Hi, this is Assistant House Republican Leader Katrina Smith of Palermo with this week's Republican Address.

Tuesday was Election Day, but for many races, Mainers still don't know who won.

Think about that for a moment.

People cast their ballots on Tuesday, yet the results of some elections may not be known for days or even weeks because of ranked-choice voting.

It doesn't have to be this way.

For generations, Maine voters went to the polls, cast a ballot, and knew the outcome when the votes were counted. Elections were straightforward, understandable, and transparent.

Ranked-choice voting changed all that.

Instead of the candidate with the most votes winning, ballots can be counted and recounted through multiple rounds. Candidates are eliminated. Votes are redistributed. Some ballots become exhausted and no longer count in the final round. The result is a system that is far more complicated than the one it replaced.

And let's be honest about how we got here.

Ranked-choice voting was presented as the solution to a problem that didn't exist. Maine successfully conducted elections for nearly 200 years under a simple system that voters understood.

Now we have delayed results, voter confusion, and endless debates about election procedures.

The constitutional problems are just as troubling.

Maine's Supreme Judicial Court unanimously concluded that ranked-choice voting conflicts with the Maine Constitution's requirement that governors and legislators be elected by a plurality of the vote. The court reaffirmed this year that ranked-choice voting cannot be expanded to general elections for governor, state representative, and state senator under our current Constitution.

Legislative Republicans have repeatedly sought to repeal ranked-choice voting, only to see those efforts rejected on party-line votes.

In fact, Democrats even proposed changing the definition of "plurality" in an attempt to work around the Constitution rather than respect what it plainly says. The Law Court once again rejected that approach.

The lesson is simple.

Elections should be easy to understand, easy to administer, and easy for voters to trust.

When Election Day arrives, voters deserve to know that the candidate with the most votes wins.

That's how democracy worked in Maine for generations, and that's how it should work again.

This has been Representative Katrina Smith.

Thank you for listening, sharing, and for participating in our elections.

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Smith
Representative Katrina Smith

of Palermo is the Assistant House Republican Leader. She is currently serving her second term in the Maine House representing District 62, which includes the towns of Windsor, China, Hibberts Gore Township, Somerville, and Palermo.  In the 131st Legislature, Katrina on the Joint Standing Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement, and Business.

Katrina earned her B.A. from Gordon College, and has spent her career as a realtor and investor. She is a member of the Maine Association of Realtors, Gun Owners of Maine, and the National Rifle Association. 

Representative Smith and her husband, Mike, have five children together.





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