Fried quoted in Press Herald article on ranked-choice voting effort
Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine, was quoted in the Portland Press Herald article, “How ranked-choice voting effort became a partisan flash point.” The politics around ranked-choice voting in Maine have become as polarized as any issue in the state, with legislators splitting on partisan lines over measures that would either suppress or help implement the system approved by voters in 2016, according to the article. Fried told the Press Herald that Democrats have likely rallied around the reform in reaction to Gov. Paul LePage’s 2010 victory — with just under 38 percent of the vote, he edged out centrist independent Eliot Cutler by 1.7 points in a five-way race — but she thinks their reasoning is mistaken, the article states. “Having ranked-choice voting wouldn’t necessarily mean that someone like LePage wouldn’t win the governorship, but I think that idea has been adopted by the LePage resistance,” she said. “With the anti-Trump current in 2018, it might help Democrats, but that doesn’t mean in future there wouldn’t be a time where it would benefit Republicans.” Sun Journal also published the Press Herald article.