On second thought, RCV is still rotten
Reactions on the Piscataquis Observer Facebook page to last week’s column are interesting. Especially comments critical of my praise for the new campaign to repeal ranked-choice voting (RCV) in Maine. A few criticisms referenced parts of Maine history with which I was unfamiliar, so I did some digging on the internet for a better understanding.
One reader said Maine’s RCV is an “evolution” of the traditional one man (person)/one vote elections. I will concede RCV moves away from one man/one vote. But I see it not as moving forward (evolution), but rather as moving backward (devolution). Plus, evolutions are not necessarily positive or beneficial. Sickness is an evolution. So are forest fires and famines.
One critic said the Maine Constitution required a majority vote “from 1820 until 1880.” In fact, the State Constitution was amended in 1847 by two-thirds of the Maine Senate and House to elect the governor, senators and members of the House of Representatives by the “highest number” of votes, instead of “a majority of votes.”
It’s worth noting the “qualified electors” under Maine’s original majority vote system would not pass muster today. Women weren’t voting, US citizens who were “paupers” weren’t voting, and neither were “Indians not taxed.” No, “qualified electors,” starting in 1820, were “every male citizen of the United States of the age of twenty-one…having his residence established in this State for the term of three months next preceding any election….”
The election process itself was incredibly cumbersome. Here is my edited description based on the 1820 Maine Constitution language:
Towns and plantations announced public meetings, at least one week in advance, for voting on candidates for Maine House and Senate by “qualified electors” in each municipality or plantation.
The qualified electors’ votes for the candidates of their choice were read aloud and tabulated or listed by the town clerk or assessor.
As for declaring a winner? The State Constitution said:
“[I]n case any person shall be elected by a majority of all the votes, the selectmen or assessors shall deliver the certified copies of such list to the person so elected, within ten days next after such election….”
“[B]ut in case no person shall have a majority of votes, the selectmen and assessors shall, as soon as may be, notify another meeting, and the same proceedings shall be had at every future meeting until and election shall have been effected….”
I am not a historian. I will continue studying this issue. But as of this writing, that original “majority” method for electing members to the Maine Legislature strikes me, except where one candidate immediately receives a majority of votes, as a pain in the neck.
Having lived with that system for about a quarter century, I’m not surprised the Legislature amended the Constitution enabling Maine Senate and House Members to be elected with a plurality (highest number) of votes.
One key point: Even with the original election system in place, nowhere does the Maine Constitution say anything about rejecting candidates from the process when more than one vote is called for. Yet, that’s exactly what happens with ranked-choice voting.
Considering all the various pros-and-cons of RCV — I always come back to two key objections:
- Elimination of the one man (person)/one vote tradition, and
- Coerced voting for candidates
As I wrote last week, in 2018 I voted for Congressman Poliquin. He received a plurality of votes and won the 2018 election, but when RCV was injected into the system, Poliquin was declared loser.
If my first choice for a candidate can also be my second, third, fourth, and on-and-on choice — I might rethink ranked-choice voting. But as long as RCV means having to vote for candidates I would never want representing me in either the Maine Legislature or the US Congress — it’s a rotten system and should be repealed.
Scott K. Fish has served as a communications staffer for Maine Senate and House Republican caucuses, and was communications director for Senate President Kevin Raye. He founded and edited AsMaineGoes.com and served as director of communications/public relations for Maine’s Department of Corrections. He now works in the private sector.