Maine has one of many strongest state-level democracies within the nation. Voting rights are vigorously protected; even folks serving time in state jail can solid a poll. It’s additionally straightforward to vote, with no-excuse absentee voting and same-day voter registration.
The Pine Tree State reduces the affect of cash in politics via the Maine Clear Election Act, which permits state candidates to qualify for marketing campaign grants in the event that they entice enough native help and swear off large cash. And most famously, Maine has ranked-choice voting for primaries and federal elections. Twice affirmed by well-liked vote, ranked-choice voting has been so successful right here that different jurisdictions (together with Alaska and New York Metropolis) are following swimsuit.
Regardless of all that, nevertheless, there are nonetheless two main flaws in Maine’s democracy: the absence of ranked-choice voting in state elections, and our unelected constitutional officers. In each circumstances, our state is falling wanting its promise by depriving Mainers of their proper to full and truthful democracy.
The momentum behind ranked-choice voting in Maine got here primarily from dissatisfaction over 4 consecutive gubernatorial elections (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014) the place the winner bought lower than a majority of the vote. Two of those elections have been gained by Democrat John Baldacci, and two have been gained by Republican Paul LePage, making plurality gubernatorial winners a bipartisan drawback. Regardless of that, due to an outdated quirk in Maine’s structure, common elections for county and state workplace can’t use ranked-choice voting. Due to this historic anachronism, we proceed to make use of the previous voting system, which has twice been rejected by Maine voters, and it is just a matter of time earlier than Maine as soon as once more elects a governor with out a majority mandate.
As a result of Maine has lengthy allowed state legislators to choose the state’s constitutional officers, many Mainers might not notice how uncommon and undemocratic our system is. Thirty-four states enable the folks to elect their secretary of state, 37 states enable the folks to elect their treasurer and 45 states enable the folks to elect their legal professional common. Moreover, in most states that don’t use well-liked elections, the positions are gubernatorial appointments; our system of letting state legislators resolve is extraordinarily uncommon. The rationale most states elect these places of work is clear: They’re essential jobs tasked with making essential choices; the voting public deserves to resolve who ought to maintain them.
Fixing these two issues would require amending the state Structure, which requires a two-thirds majority vote within the legislature.
At present, Republicans are blocking the growth of ranked-choice voting, whereas Democrats are blocking well-liked elections for secretary of state, legal professional common and treasurer. The reasoning behind every is easy political profit – Republicans assume ranked-choice voting will harm them, whereas Democrats imagine that permitting Mainers to choose their very own constitutional officers means voters would possibly decide somebody legislative Democrats don’t like. In every case, the partisan place is tactically comprehensible however morally indefensible.
Thankfully, democratic reform gained’t have to attend for the events to see the sunshine of precept. As an alternative, Democrats and Republicans can come collectively to enhance Maine’s democracy by making a commerce: the 2 reforms ought to be packaged collectively into one constitutional modification.
Republicans might not like ranked-choice voting, however they’ll vote for it with a view to get well-liked elections for constitutional places of work, whereas Democrats might not like well-liked elections for constitutional places of work, however they’ll vote for it with a view to get ranked-choice voting. On the finish of the day, every get together wins on one situation and loses on one situation, however Maine’s democracy comes out forward on each.
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