instant runoff voting / ranked choice voting begins in maine

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the time for qualifying the truth was past as i took one last long desperate drink from the store brand cola, threw it in the trash and checked into security


they were interested in me


i was wearing what looked like a combat vest and sweating nervously

something in the green bag didn't look right in the magnetic resonance imager so they took it out of the grey plastic tray and had the rubber glove lady gently and lovingly pat the starburst candy as i waited to see if she opened the first aid kit and find the condoms


the departure gate lounge was packed because of all the people scurrying back to maine for the first ranked choice voting statewide ballot in history

ranked choice voting was devised by massachusetts architect william robert ware around 1870


they didn't have tv back then so they spent more time on procreation which was good because they eventually procreated up someone smart enough to invent tv

• the ranked choice voting initiative passed with 52% of the vote back in 2016, as a response to the koch created tea party governor paul lepage being elected with less than 40% of the vote in 2010

the plane dropped through the cloud cover over bangor without incident and we disembarked into the cool gloomy wintertime memory that was maine in june this year

rcv has a turbulent history being implemented in maine, first with the republican controlled state senate trying to get it nixed claiming it unconstitutional because the state constitution calls for a plurality vote 

 the delay in implementing rcv and trying to eliminate it if the constitution is not amended in 3 years as enacted by the state legislature has been over turned by a people's petition initiative installing a people's veto referendum to overturn the state legislature's act in a vote that took place on tuesday june 12 th, 2018 in a primary election which used rcv in a statewide election for the first time in the u s history

no one has explained how rcv fails to meet the definition of plurality other than claiming they mean some special kind of  plurality of one single vote per constituent like president clinton defining sexual relations as a bee pollinating a flower then claiming he didn't have sexual relations with monica lewinsky because he didn't pollinate her


rcv winners always have a majority which is also a plurality

the cyr bus is one of the few places you can get a good night's rest in northern maine without someone waking you up to tell you someone they knew hit a moose with their car

• but when the border gaurds board the bus in houlton and ask you where you were born just try to tell them the city you were born in without incoherently mentioning  how the tubes of silicone caulk in your bag were for kitchen tile repair not inhaling, sir, as you stare at moonless stars on your aunt's planet with painted smiles on her bottles of nitrogen

as we accompianied june frost warnings up to the st john valley the cool weather presaged ominous threat to  burger king's french fries so i ordered a hot cup of of dark roast coffee, my first in months, and a toasted bagel with margarine at burger king's affiliate tim horton's in caribou, where the inventor of the frozen french fry was born, or at least cross pollinated

the first results came in the day after the vote and yes on one appeared to have passed with a 9 point margin so when i mixed the canola oil, salt and pepper in the smooth white bowl and added the piping hot microwaved baked potato then mashed it to exacting texture, my digestive system relaxed sending the first taste of soft creamy aroostook mashed u s #1 white potato on to my appetite like forgiveness

1/3 more democrats than republicans turned out for the 2018 maine primaries

• bangor daily news calls yes vote supporting ranked choice voting as having passed

a glitch allegedly caused thumb drives from 5 towns not to read in the tabulation computer so police had to drive to the towns and pick up hard copies of the votes

of course each paper ballot could have been scanned by each town registrar's cell phone and the images sent to augusta so we could have vote totals that could later have been officially validated but then where would mainers find their fix for this seeming never ending addiction for drama ?

rcv always having a winner with a majority of the votes shows a mandate is possible in a 3 or 4 way race to that storied mixed drink or apertif in the rareified air of an actual democracy at its best

janet mills has officially a few minutes ago  been declared the winner of the maine 2018 democratic primary race for governor for the first time in our nation's history using ranked choice voting

betsy sweet

how maines ranked choice voting played out