The Lewiston mayoral runoff election will be expensive, inconvenient and unnecessary. Most Americans, including those who endorsed and passed the ruling regarding the election, believe that democracy equals majority rule (more than 50 percent). Sadly, that is not true for many elections involving more than two candidates.
In those cases, the winner is often decided by a plurality, which might mean that the least preferred candidate could be the one elected. Like Lewiston, some municipalities require a majority for election and when no one receives that majority on the first ballot, a runoff is necessary.
However, ranked choice voting eliminates that expensive delay by allowing voters to rank their choices so that a runoff is automatic. Ranked choice voting would work for all elections.
William Phillips, Auburn
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