Maine makes history

[rob in cal]

   The voters in Maine have narrowly passed an instant runoff, preferential voting system similar to Australia, in which voters rank their preferences of candidates and then if no candidate has a majority of first preferences, the lowest ranking candidate is excluded and the second choice of their voters is added to the count etc, until a majority is reached. It will apply for US Senate, US House, state legislature and Governor elections.  This will be the first time it will be used in a partisan context, AFAIK, as right now its usually used just in non-partisan city elections.

[rob in cal]

    What I'm really interested in seeing is how the Libertarian and Green parties utilize this law. Finally the whole argument of "don't waste your vote" can be destroyed, curb-stomped, annihilated, put to bed, and the electorate and can fire away and vote their true heart's desire.  This being the US, somehow I wouldn't be surprised if the third parties still end up fumbling this opportunity, but it will be fun to see what happens.
   I wouldn't be surprised if the Libertarians don't really emphasize the new system in their campaigning but I can see the Greens really getting behind it and mobilizing potential supporters to go Green 1, Dem 2 in places like Portland.