LEWISTON, Maine – Lead Maine Founder and Executive Director Laurel Libby, a Republican state representative, hosted a ranked-choice voting forum Tuesday night aimed at helping Maine voters understand how to navigate the state’s complicated voting system ahead of the 2026 gubernatorial primary.
More than 100 attendees took part in the forum, asking questions as speakers walked through the mechanics of ranked-choice voting, ballot-marking scenarios, exhausted ballots, recount concerns, and voter intent.
The forum featured Trent England, founder and executive director of Save Our States and co-chairman of the Stop Ranked Choice Voting Coalition, along with Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party.
Libby opened the event by making clear that Lead Maine opposes ranked-choice voting and supports repealing it in Maine. But she said the purpose of the forum was practical: helping voters understand how ranked-choice voting works before they head to the polls.
Only two states, Maine and Alaska, currently use ranked-choice voting for statewide elections. Alaska is also in the process of trying to eliminate it.
Speakers warned that ranked-choice voting can create confusion for voters, slow down election results, complicate recounts, and lead to “exhausted” ballots.
Under ranked-choice voting, voters may rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent in the first round, the lowest-performing candidates are eliminated and their voters’ next choices are redistributed. That process continues until a winner is declared.
Critics at the forum argued that the system does not guarantee a true majority winner because ballots can be removed from later rounds once a voter’s ranked choices are exhausted. As speakers explained, that means a candidate can be declared the winner with a majority of the remaining active ballots, not necessarily a majority of all ballots originally cast.
Savage walked attendees through sample ballots, warning voters not to mark more than one candidate in the same ranking column and not to skip multiple rankings. He also told voters who make a mistake to request a replacement ballot from election workers rather than risk having their voter intent questioned later.
The panel emphasized that voters do not have to rank every candidate. Speakers said a voter may choose only one candidate, rank several candidates, or rank all candidates, depending on how strongly they feel about the field. But they warned voters not to get “fancy” with the ballot by trying to game the system with skipped rankings or duplicate rankings that could create confusion.
During the question-and-answer portion of the forum, The Maine Wire asked why ranked-choice voting results would not necessarily be delivered on election night.
Savage said Maine’s home-rule structure plays a role in the timing, along with the more complicated nature of ranked-choice tabulation. He said the process can involve Secretary of State staff, multiple rounds of vote calculations, exhausted ballot reviews, and, in recount scenarios, law enforcement collecting and transporting ballots.
Savage said ranked-choice voting recounts are also more complicated than traditional recounts because ballots must be secured, transported, manually reviewed, and counted through multiple rounds, with teams tracking which candidates remain active and which ballots have been exhausted.
The panel also reviewed Maine’s constitutional limits on ranked-choice voting. Speakers said the system is currently used in primaries for state and federal elections and in general elections for federal races, but not in general elections for governor or the Legislature.
The event comes as Maine prepares for a crowded Republican and Democrat gubernatorial primaries, where multiple candidates appear on the ballots.
Lead Maine has also posted a ranked-choice voting tutorial on its website to help voters prepare. Organizers said a full video recording of Tuesday night’s presentation will be posted on LEADMaine.com next Wednesday as an additional voter resource.
The message from the forum was direct: Lead Maine and the panelists want ranked-choice voting repealed, but until that happens, they say Maine voters need to understand the system well enough to avoid mistakes and make their voices heard.
Thank you Laurel Libby and the Maine Wire for offering this information. I still do not understand how this Leftist created voting system works and fear that my confusion is just exactly what is intended by its creators. I hope that someone can offer a simple explanation but in the meantime, I will just vote for my first choice and hope that that person wins. That used to be the way it worked, back when logic ruled.
Maine and Alaska .
The TWO Braintrust States of America.
Where voters were / are just stupid enough to get fooled into voting for this DEMOCRAT scheme .
Unbelievable .
If you’re actively campaigning for the use of RCV and encouraging people to rank their votes then how can we trust once they get elected they will repeal it….?
RCV = Keep “counting” until the desired results are achieved.
We can thank the Lefties at the League of Women Voters of Maine for this abomination. RCV should be abolished and I don’t give a rats ass how they try to justify it which is, in essence, cheating to win at all costs.
Good to see that Laurel Libby hasn’t walked away from the fight. The party and the state needs gutsy women like her.
RCV is a joke / Just keep counting until the loser wins / The Democratic way
Ranked Choice Voting is just………rank.
It reeks of Democrat.
Help,…. I can’t find the link to the tutorial,…..
Well done and thank you, Lead Maine and Representative Libby and others. Time for people, NOT PARTY, to step up clear the sheets, sail for trust, honesty, and end fraud with trial and what the laws demand.