I am voting against Question 5, “An Act To Establish Ranked-Choice Voting.”
I attended a panel discussion on that issue at the Caswell Conservancy Center in Harrison on Oct. 25 and listened to Kyle Bailey present the pro-Question 5 side and State Rep. Heather Sirocki present the anti-Question 5 side.
It is still confusing to me and impossible to assess the implications of ranked-choice voting on the outcome of elections here in Maine, but the one factor that led me to my decision to vote against Question 5 is that Maine would be the first state to adopt ranked-choice voting.
Municipalities such as Portland have ranked-choice voting, but Portland has a population 66,881 and it is impossible to project what would happen when adopting it for the entire state, with a population of 1.3 million. There would be unforeseen consequences, a point made by Sirocki.
Let some other state adopt it and Maine can then see how it works out there.
Robert Casimiro, Bridgton
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