The Maine legislature voted to make it the first state in the United States to use ranked choice voting for presidential electors in general elections. The 2020 election will be the first in which Maine voters will choose their presidential electors in order of preference.
In Maine's version of ranked choice voting, voters rank the candidates from the one they like best to the one they like least. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the candidate with the lowest number of first ranked votes is eliminated and the totals of those voters second choices are counted as first choices in the vote totals. This continues until one candidate gets more than 50% of first and second choice votes.
The hopes of proponents is that ranked choice voting will stop voting for the "lesser of two evils." If somebody really thinks an independent or alternative party candidate is best, they can vote for that candidate as their first choice and the major party candidate as their second choice without worrying about "stealing" votes from the major party candidate. In theory, there should also be more consensus, as sometimes a candidate who is the second choice of almost everyone will win over a candidate who is a plurality first choice of 30-40% of the voters. For example, it is possible that Ross Perot might have won over Clinton and Bush in a ranked choice voting environment, rather than Clinton electors winning with only 43% of the popular vote. It would have also solved the problem of 2000 Florida presidential election.
A Conscious Conservative is watching this development. Although there is guarded optimism, it is believed that Republicans and Democrats can develop a way to rig the ranked choice system also. Maine is one of only two states that does not select a statewide slate of electors. We will see if Maine selects any electors that are not pledged to the Republican or Democratic Party in 2020.
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