Ranked-choice voting was passed with enthusiasm by the voters of Maine, but got tied up in knots by a legislative committee chaired by one of the many candidates for governor. A people’s veto campaign is underway and must collect enough signatures by Jan. 19.

If enough signatures are gathered to put the people’s veto on the ballot, the upcoming state elections, including the very crowded governor’s primaries, will be conducted by the ranked-choice method. That is especially important this year as both parties have a lot of candidates with their hats in the ring. Under the old method, a candidate with 15 or 20 percent of his or her party’s vote could be declared the winner and become the party candidate on the ballot.

Two state races, but not the primaries, are subject to some question about the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting, but the ranked-choice process of counting also reveals the plurality winner of the first round of counting and would unambiguously identify the winner by that standard, too.

Signing the petition moves the question onto the ballot and gives backers the June race as a test case. If, in the end, Mainers vote down the veto, we’ll be back where we were, but Republican and Democratic candidates for governor will have been chosen by a majority using the ranked-choice method.

Jim Perkins, Wayne