FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 14, 2016
Contact: Meleiza Figueroa, Press Director – press@jill2016.com
In Maine, Dr. Jill Stein Praises Statewide Ranked Choice Voting Initiative as Model for the Nation
PORTLAND, MAINE (Sept 14) – Dr. Jill Stein continued her campus tour of the Northeast today with two stops at University of Maine in Orono and University of Southern Maine in Portland. She hailed Maine as being on the cutting edge of critical reforms to the voting system with the statewide Ranked Choice Voting initiative, Question 5, that will be put before voters in November.
Stein noted: “Voters across America are frustrated by our broken voting system. The problem is that our current voting system is forcing some people to feel they must vote against the candidate they dislike the most rather than for the one they like the most. Ranked choice voting is a solution to this problem, and Maine is leading the charge to give voters more choices in our elections.”
“Question 5 gives Mainers the power to rank candidates in the order you prefer. It’s as simple as 1-2-3,” Stein continued. “Counting the votes is equally easy. If any candidate receives a majority of the most votes, they win. Majority rule. But if there is no majority winner, then the candidate with the least number of first preference votes is eliminated. But those voters did not “waste” their votes, because they already indicated their second choice. That’s why it is sometimes called ‘Instant Runoff Voting.’”
Stein touted Ranked Choice Voting as a easy solution to the alleged “spoiler” effect of independent candidates, as well as the dominant two-party politics of the “lesser evil” that has presented American voters in this election cycle with the two most disliked and distrusted candidates in the nation’s history.
In contrast, Stein notes, Ranked Choice Voting “empowers the voter with the freedom to vote for the candidate you like best without worrying that it could help the candidate you like least win the election. Ranked choice voting takes the fear out of voting. It’s time to implement this new and improved system to encourage more participation, more voices and more choices.”