In nation's first federal ranked-choice voting race, Bruce Poliquin lost - and he's not over it. [View all]
For Bruce Poliquin, the fight over ranked-choice voting is deeply personal.
The former congressman from Maine’s 2nd District, who lost his seat a year ago in the first federal race with ranked-choice voting, is speaking up in a bid to stymie the spread of an election system he views as “the biggest voter rip-off in Maine history.”
An outspoken critic of the system in Maine, Poliquin earlier this month urged a Massachusetts legislative committee looking into the possibility of adopting the system in the Bay State to “reject the broken promises, confusion and voter fraud inherent in rank voting. Don’t be hoodwinked like we were.”
New York City adopted ranked-choice voting this month for its future elections and efforts are underway in at least a dozen states to follow Maine’s lead by switching to the system.
While electoral reform advocates like Rob Richie of the national group FairVote see the trend as a big step toward better elections, it’s an article of faith in some GOP circles that it is a scheme by Democrats to confuse and cheat Republican voters, a belief spurred by Maine’s governor at the time, Republican Paul LePage, who labeled Poliquin’s defeat a “stolen election.”
Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2019/11/19/in-nations-first-federal-ranked-choice-voting-race-bruce-poliquin-lost-and-hes-not-over-it/
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