“Last November, Maine people approved ranked-choice voting with the second largest vote in Maine history. 52% for, 48% against.
Overall, 48% of all registered voters identify as Democrats or lean Democratic compared with 44% who identify as Republican or lean toward the GOP.
This would indicate that partisan politics may have played a role in approval of RCV because the percentages of voter affiliation track the RCV vote.
GORHAM, MAINE — With less than 24 hours to deploy thousands of petitions and collect signatures for Election Day, more than 400 volunteers from the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) joined together to get well over half the valid signatures required to qualify for the ballot to stop the Legislature’s bill to delay and repeal the new election system.
The Committee received the approved petition from Secretary of State Matt Dunlap at 4:30 PM the night before Election Day, making the speed of petition deployment and signature collection a record-breaking event. The signatures were collected by an all-volunteer force in every single one of the 16 counties in Maine.
The energy from the tens of thousands of people who collected and signed on Election Day was incredible. Maine voters are determined to have Ranked Choice Voting in place.
Kyle Bailey, RCV Maine campaign manager
To qualify for the ballot, the People’s Veto campaign must collect 61,123 individual signatures from registered Maine voters in ninety days. The People’s Veto has been used just 30 times in the last 100 years and never before in the case of a voter-approved initiative being overturned by the Legislature.
“The energy from the tens of thousands of people who collected and signed on Election Day was incredible. Maine voters are determined to have Ranked Choice Voting in place, beginning with the June 2018 primaries,” said Kyle Bailey, campaign manager. “Maine people understand that to stop the Legislature from overturning referendum after referendum, we need an election system that puts more power in the hands of voters by giving us more choice and more voice in elections.”
Contact Jim Chiddix, 207-680-9288 or Brad Sherwood, sherwoodb1977@gmail.com
and we will bring a petition to you for your signature.