RCV America

Read this opinion piece in the Portland Press Herald online here.

Kyle Bailey Special to the Portland Press Herald

Ten years ago, on Election Day in 2014, I stood outside of my polling place at Gorham Middle School and collected signatures for the citizen’s initiative to adopt ranked-choice voting.

I wanted the power to rank my vote because I wanted the chance to vote my hopes, and not my fears. I wanted to cast my ballot for the candidate that I liked best without worrying that I might help to elect the candidate I liked least. I thought it was unfair and immoral that in a representative democracy a candidate from either party, or neither, could get elected with less than 40% of the vote.

I am grateful to the Maine people for their wisdom and courage to adopt ranked-choice voting. I am gratified that this simple and easy change to the way we vote empowers voters with more choice and more voice, and prevents candidates from winning who are opposed by a majority of voters.

There is no silver bullet to fix our broken political system. However, there are practical steps that we can and should take to strengthen our democracy. We owe it to ourselves, each other, and future generations to remain vigilant and act.

Over the past decade, we’ve secured, defended, and expanded ranked-choice voting, we’ve opened Maine’s primaries to unenrolled voters, we’ve passed ongoing absentee voting for seniors and disabled Mainers, and we’ve worked to get foreign money out of elections.

This week, Maine voters passed Question 1 to place a reasonable limit of $5,000 on contributions to political action committees (PACs) that make independent expenditures to support or oppose candidates. Big and dark Super PAC money has no place in our elections. 

We keep working to fix what is broken and make improvements where we can because Maine is worth protecting, and America is an idea worth fighting for. 

We keep working because somewhere in our country right now there are billionaires and corporations with teams of lawyers and accountants that are looking for loopholes in our campaign finance laws.

We keep working because there are bad actors–foreign and domestic–actively working to exploit weakness in our political system and promote misinformation at the expense of the common good.

When asked whether America had chosen to become a monarchy or a republic, Benjamin Franklin replied, “It’s a republic, if you can keep it.” 

When you vote for positive and hopeful election and campaign finance reforms, you are answering the call of our constitutional framers to continue their work to make America a “more perfect union.”

We only lose our republic if we stop fighting for it. We’ll keep it. And make it better.

Kyle Bailey is a former Maine State Representative from Gorham. He led the campaigns that won and defended Maine’s landmark ranked-choice voting law, and Maine’s groundbreaking initiative this year to end Super PACs.