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Shrugging off the label of electoral "spoilers," members of the Maine Green Independent Party embraced Portland's new rank choice voting system as a third-party-friendly approach to electing the city's mayor.No spoilers in ranked choice voting?
"I think it will encourage people to run positive campaigns, and rather than having the so-called spoiler, Ralph Nader effect, which is not true at all ... it will totally separate that, because there are no spoilers in rank choice voting," said Tom MacMillan, a Maine Green Party steering committee member who lives in the West End of Portland.
Portland this year embarks on an elected-mayor campaign that replaces a council-appointed mayor with one elected to an at-large seat. Through a city charter change, voters also will choose their next mayor through rank choice voting, where if any candidate falls short of a majority, then the "second choice" votes come into play in the tabulation.
May 4, 2011
ME: Greens Enter Ranked Choice Mayoral Race
From the Portland Herald, via Green Party Watch:
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4 comments:
"No spoilers in ranked choice voting?"
Indeed. Burlington, VT, is only an hour or two away, they should ask them about that.
Hey Dale, do you have a good link to a post at Least of All Evils or elsewhere addressing the spoiler effect in ranked choice, one that could serve as a good reference for future posts in which this topic comes up?
I wonder how well the Green Independents will do under IRV in Portland. I guess we'll see soon enough.
(Or I suppose, how poorly)
A Green Independent activist I know in Maine is very excited about IRV (and his lobbying the state legislature for it's statewide use), I wonder what he'd think of Approval voting.
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