Background:
The League of Women Voters of Maine is a leading voice in advocacy for more representative voting methods. For more than a decade, the League has been providing education and advocacy in support of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) to ensure that the individuals elected in single-winner races are supported by the majority of voters they are to represent. The League recognizes that its work on this front is not yet complete and continues to advocate for full implementation of Ranked Choice Voting in single-winner elections. See the LWVME position on single-winner RCV.
However, the LWVME Advocacy Committee has become increasingly concerned that election methods common in Maine (such as Vote-for-N elections, widely used in municipal elections) may not reliably deliver proportional representation.
In 2021, the Advocacy Committee requested authorization to launch a League study of Proportional Ranked Choice Voting (pRCV), an election method designed to better achieve proportional representation on multi-seat councils, boards, and legislatures. For a quick introduction to pRCV, we recommend this three-minute post-it note demonstration. With Board support, the pRCV Study Committee was convened in early 2022 and now presents this study guide to League members and supporters.
Position in Brief:
The League of Women Voters of Maine supports the use of proportional ranked choice voting (pRCV) in elections for multi-member municipal bodies because it more reliably delivers proportional representation than Maine's commonly used election methods.
Are YOU ready to try pRCV?
In a pRCV contest, each voter completes a ranked choice ballot, exactly like we do in a single-winner RCV contest. And then tabulation (vote counting) software uses the pRCV counting rules to translate those ranked choice ballots into a set of winners that will broadly satisfy the participating voters. You can read all about it in our study guide, but it might be more fun to try it yourself!
We want to elect councils and boards that accurately reflect the whole community – and we know that you didn’t serve three pepperoni pizzas at your Super Bowl party, leaving the vegetarian minority to go hungry. The Study Committee has set up a model pRCV ‘election,’ designed to identify three pizzas that will best satisfy the participating voters. Click here to add your vote, and then explore the round-by-round count to find out which pizzas are currently in the lead.
Brief Introductions to pRCV:
Dive Deeper into pRCV: