Ranked Choice Voting: 'As Maine Goes...'

Two weeks before Maine's June primary—the first statewide election held using ranked choice voting (RCV)—David Brooks penned an opinion column in The New York Times headlined, “One Reform to Save America.” Brooks argued that ranked choice voting, particularly in multi-member districts, could cure the evils that have led to a polarized two-party system in America. Beware a reform that promises too much.

At least since French political scientist Maurice Duverger published Political Parties more than seventy-five years ago, political scientists have preached that single member districts lead to two-party systems.