Ranked-choice voting signature drive underway

To the Editor;
Ranked-choice voting (RCV) will make elections more fair and democratic. There is a new petition that will force the enactment of RCV (which has been delayed until after 2020 by the legislature) by next year. The new one is the same as the old one, just minus the parts that the Maine Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional. If we get 61,000 signatures Maine residents will be able to vote in the June 2018 primary elections using RCV!

Opponents say it will cost too much. However, 11 cities in the U.S. use RCV to elect city officials, including Portland, San Francisco and Minneapolis. None of these cities have reported significant problems or extra costs in adapting their voting systems to accommodate it.

I am collecting signatures for this drive. If you support RCV, please contact me to arrange a time and place to sign, at 270-4032. I have an actual ballot used in the Portland 2015 mayoral race, if anyone is interested in seeing this. It really is worth a thousand words.

Bob Lodato
Charleston