Whom we supported
The League of Women Voters of Maine has been at the forefront of the civic movement for ranked choice voting in Maine for the past decade. The League convened the initial study in 2008 of solutions to Maine’s pattern of gubernatorial elections without majority winners, a study that concluded with a recommendation for ranked choice voting. In the lead-up to the June 2018 ranked choice election, the League, in partnership with Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, played a key role in educating Maine voters on how to use the new system, and providing advice to the Maine Secretary of State.
Why we contributed
Election Reformers Network joined forces with Fairvote to fund a public opinion poll proposed by the League of Women Voters of Maine. Completed five weeks before the June 12, 2018 Maine RCV election, the poll was designed as a voter education tool to illustrate to voters how the RCV tabulation works in the real world case of the Maine Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries. SurveyUSA polled over 1,000 Mainers and calculated front runners in the key races with the same ranked choice tabulation used for the ranked choice election. The Bangor Daily News partnered in the process and provided extensive coverage of the poll results. This was the first-ever poll of a state-wide race conducted with ranked choice methodology.