Joe H. Pickering Jr. is president of Mainers for Open Elections. 

Kyle Bailey, a former Maine state legislator and Maine’s leading major election reformer, had an excellent op-ed in these pages earlier this year. In that piece of commentary, “How we do elections matters,” Bailey celebrates the value of ranked choice voting to Maine and urges its expansion to state general offices.

This would be a step in the right direction. But America should be the land of we the people, not we the party. Ranked choice voting within the framework of a nonpartisan election system at all levels, including the presidential elections, is a far better solution.

Former 16-year conservative Republican Congressmen Mickey Edwards wrote the bestselling book “The Parties vs the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans.” Amen to that title.

Already, 85% of all municipal elections in the nation, including Maine, are nonpartisan. Expanding this to include the primaries and the presidential elections is in the best interest of the people and our parties.

Partisan “democracy” is America’s greatest hypocrisy at any level. The facts are nearly 90 million voters did not vote in the 2024 presidential election. Aren’t most Americans simply fed up with the party control of our “elections” system? Neither presidential candidate got even 50% of the vote. Independent voters nationwide are almost as big as both major parties.

Maine’s only in the middle pack of primary election reform, way behind Alaska, California and Washington state. Now Maine, both voters and various organizations, needs to bring true election change, not just strengthen the partisan election system.  

 The Open Primary Elections and Ranked-choice Voting bill will be resubmitted in 2027 if it qualifies before the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee. May it have many co-sponsors from both parties supporting its brave sponsor, Sen. Joe Baldacci. 

When I spoke on behalf of this bill in person as president of Mainers for Open Elections, co-founded by Dr. Robert Croce and his wife, Jill Martel, several national leaders supported the bill in writing, including Jeremy Gruber, vice president of Open Primaries, and Eric Bronner of all Veterans Vote. Some Mainers also supported it. But it will only pass if many Mainers demand it.

I said in part to the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee at that last session:

“Why continue to tweak a semi-open primary, also called a semi-closed primary? It does not serve either the Maine voter or the parties in the long run. Mainers deserve so much better. Live Maine’s motto to lead in election reform. Move beyond a partisan-controlled semi-open primary to a nonpartisan primary. Our public primary elections are paid for by Maine taxpayers. We Mainers should truly own our system, not two private corporations through a partisan election process. 

“As a registered member of a major party (Republican), I believe our parties are vital and necessary for our not yet perfect democracy. But, remaining within a partisan election system is destructive to Maine, America and all parties because partisan elections are wrong in the first place. In the second place, the party members are dwindling. Partisan elections at all levels contribute to this decline. Eighty-five percent of the municipal governments including Maine are now nonpartisan.”

According to a Gallup poll in 2024, 51% of all voters identified as independent nationwide, which is more than our Republican and Democratic parties combined. In the 1940 presidential election, both major parties received nearly 99.5% of all votes.

The major parties surely represented America during that time. Not so today. Fast forward to the 2024 presidential election —nearly 90 million Americans did not vote. And neither major party candidate got 50% of the vote. This partisan election process is doing great harm to all of us, including our parties.  

The last time I testified before the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, though the members were respectful, they seemed committed to the “we the party” process. The Baldacci bill was defeated overwhelmingly, with one abstention. I told them I would return for the next session in 2027 to ask for their reconsideration. That will only happen if many Mainers show up in Augusta, write, call and demand a nonpartisan with RCV primary process.

May our Legislature wake up and serve the people of Maine as well as their parties’ future. May we Mainers, by our actions, help save Maine and America and the parties themselves through a nonpartisan election system that features municipal, primary and presidential elections. It truly would make Maine and America better than before.