Good News: Municipal Ranked Choice Voting Signed into Law

Thursday, April 14, 2022
LWVME

It seems like every week there's a flurry of news and information to soak in. In case you missed it, we're here to deliver some of the good news: Governor Mills recently signed LD 859, An Act To Give Municipalities More Options in Municipal Elections, into law. 

This bill will allow more towns to adopt Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for municipal elections, like Mayoral, Council, and School Board races. Currently, only Portland and Westbrook use Ranked Choice Voting for municipal elections, but now LD 859 will make it easier for other towns to adopt RCV if they wish to! 

The League of Women Voters of Maine has endorsed Ranked Choice Voting since 2011 — after we convened a three year study on the pros and cons of RCV. We concluded RCV is the best way to ensure a majority vote in competitive, single-seat, multi-candidate elections.

 

Adopt RCV in Your Town: Last fall, the League assisted in a successful citizen initiative to bring Ranked Choice Voting to Westbrook for municipal elections. This inspired us to write a guide on how any Maine resident could lead a citizen initiative to adopt municipal RCV in their town. Look for our new publication coming this summer.

Get Updates: Want to receive updates on how you can bring Ranked Choice Voting to your city/town? Click here to receive notifications about our upcoming RCV guide and more!

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