Discussion: Judge Rejects GOP Maine Rep's Request To Halt Vote Count

Chalk one up for ranked votingā€¦

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Hey, GOPā€¦

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Way to go Maine! As a former long-time Maine resident Iā€™m so happy to see them repudiating their dalliance with right wing idiocy.

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He feels required to challenge the law after it seems to go against him. He had no time to challenge it in the time leading up to the election. I guess he thought it would favour him.

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I did a bit of digging, and it turns out the people of Maine have been at war with the stateā€™s GOP leadership on this. Very interesting story.

And to make things more confusing, Mainers canā€™t use ranked-choice voting for state-level offices because it violates the stateā€™s constitution.

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Is this the same type of ranking system being used in California?

Since it looks like a state issue and Maineā€™s supreme court ruled on this a year and a half ago, how does this even get into federal court?

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Itā€™s only unconstitutional for state office elections, not federal elections in the state.

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In California in the primary the candidates who are first and second in votes proceed to the general election. Gavin Newsom came in first in the primary, John Cox came in second. It could mean that two Democrats run against each other in the general election. A number of years ago there was a fierce fight for a House seat between two Democrats, Brad Sherman prevailed. I voted against this initiative when it went to vote.

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Ah, thanks. I didnā€™t read bankerpupā€™s original comment closely enough.

This seems fairly minor to me. Given states power over voting rights, it seems ok.

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Yes, a very different system, CAā€™s addresses who gets on the ballot in the primary, there is no ballot access unless you get one of the top two spots, so there is no need for ranked choice voting. What this is doing is allowing more moderate candidates to advance by appealing to the middle of the electorate. Before crazy right winger got 40% of the vote in the R primary and crazy left winger got 40% in the D primary. Now each gets 20% in the ā€œjungleā€ primary, and someone who gets 30% support from Dā€™s and 40% from independents and 5% from republicans advances, and likely wins.

My city (San Francisco) does have ranked choice voting, and they system has IMHO worked well. It prevents someone winning by others splitting the vote, and tends to force more cooperation, while allowing people with different viewpoints to run, without in doing so splitting the vote and electing the other side.

I am happy that the ā€ ŠÆā˜­mp appointed judge did the right thing. It IMHO was a clear call, this system is clearly legal and it is not the Courtā€™s roll to step in, but with anyone connected to ā€ ŠÆā˜­mp it is not clear if the rule of law would prevail over partisanship. Chock this one up to even a ā€ ŠÆā˜­mp judge being forced to follow the law. Hopefully we see more of this.

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Itā€™s confusing, thatā€™s for sure.

The voters in Maine seem to favor an amendment to the state constitution to permit ranked-choice voting at the state level. But that requires a 2/3 majority in both houses of the state lege and the GOP pols wonā€™t support it.

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The reveal of entitlement and the dirty voting tricks has been fascinating in this election. Thereā€™s a light shining into the Republican methods thatā€™s brighter than ever before, thrown into relief by the flagrant behavior and proclamations of the entitled ones.
For Rick Scott to self-righteously claim fraud is both brazenly narcissistic and comedic. They all stand up there, butt-hurt and demanding their place in the cabal.

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Poliquin plans to pursue his lawsuit, win or lose.

Iā€™m willing to bet he quietly drops the lawsuit if he wins.

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I donā€™t understand how weā€™re this far away from election day in a state as small as Maine without having processed this vote, unless their tabulation system is unimaginably stupid.

Hereā€™s what I mean. Each voterā€™s ā€œvoteā€ is not a single choice but is instead a total ranking. Once that has been recorded into the vote-counting system, the algorithm to determine the winner should take roughly a few seconds to process. The eventual ranked-choice winner should have been known literally within seconds of when the ā€œfirst roundā€ totals were known. I donā€™t understand how we know the first round result without knowing the result of all ensuing rounds, including the eventual winner.

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Golden wins

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ā€œPoliquin pointed out the voters in his 2nd Congressional District rejected the new voting system.ā€

So what, idiot? Unless your District in a separate state, it doesnā€™t matter.

I posted the below the other day. It is a video from C.G. P. Grey and explains the Alternative Vote process.

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Exactly, if anyone is willing to believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklin, Maine, I could sell them.

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