AP quotes Brewer in article on ranked-choice voting in 2nd District race

Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, was quoted in an Associated Press article about how Maine’s new ranked-choice voting method will determine the winner in the 2nd Congressional District race between Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin and Democrat Jared Golden. Neither candidate in the most expensive race in state history collected a majority of first-place votes under Maine’s new ranked-choice voting method, which was used for the first time in U.S. House and Senate races, according to the report. The goal of the system is to ensure that the winning candidate has broad support by letting voters rank all of the candidates on the ballot. If a candidate is eliminated, then a voter’s second choice could come into play, the article states. There are legitimate concerns if the system will pass legal muster because of the one person, one vote principle, according to Brewer. He said he heard reports that voters were confused by having separate ranked-choice ballots for federal elections and traditional ballots for state races. “We’re asking voters to vote under two different systems in the same election. It’s confusing to a lot of people,” he said. U.S. News & World Report, Boston.com and News Center Maine carried the AP report.