During the past couple of months, I have dedicated hundreds of hours to signature collection for the ranked choice voting campaign. During that time, I have had the honor of talking with thousands of fellow voters — the vast majority of whom agree that the current political infrastructure is tragically flawed.

Change is long overdue and the solution is non-partisan in nature. Hope is on the horizon.

That hope takes form in ranked choice voting, an electoral system already used to elect the mayor in Portland. With ranked choice voting, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of support and a person’s first choice receives the least number of votes, he or she is eliminated from contention and a person’s vote is transferred to the second choice of the two remaining contenders. A person’s vote still counts only once, but under this system, it’s not wasted.

The best aspect of ranked choice voting is that the winner must have at least 50 percent of the vote to win an election. Hence, the majority rules, unlike the current system in which the plurality, not majority, is repeatedly deciding the chosen winner.

Don’t voters deserve a system that ensures elected officials have a mandate to lead?

Jennifer Nadeau, Auburn


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