Dear Editor:

I have to believe that when Dr. Ben Reilly of Australia’s Murdoch University arrived in Maine, he was trying to imagine why any voter would want their candidate to win an election with 70 percent of the voters not in favor of that candidate.

It had to be very difficult to believe a country like the United States was still running elections as if majority winners did not matter in a democracy.  After all Australia had been achieving majority winners in all elections since the late 1800s.  The single transferable vote system is often referred to as the instant-runoff vote that uses rank choice voting methods.

Maine is finally stepping into a voting system that requires a majority vote for a candidate to win at the ballot box.   A democracy is after all by the people. It is a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people. To a majority vote, the majority of people who exercised their right to vote directly elected their chosen agents under a free electoral system. The United States is a democracy when majority votes choose the representatives.

There are other democracy defined qualities, including a society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges. It contains a democratic spirit that seeks leaders that earn the majority vote that leads and maintains political or social equality for all.

Majority leaders in a democracy receive their majority votes from the common people.  Remember in a democracy the supreme power is vested in the people. 

If the experiment of American democracy is to mean anything, it is fidelity to the principle of freedom to vote. When a people really mean to do something, it must resort to democracy.  Rank choice majority vote has been a successful means in Australia and many other democratic countries for centuries.  It’s our turn now.  Maine has a great chance to elect leaders who actually win by a majority vote.

The ballots are well prepared with one side providing for the democracy majority vote and the other side the plurality vote candidates until Maine amends its state constitution. Democracy is waiting for your vote.

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb