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Maine Passes Ranked-Choice Voting

Maine residents have approved a ballot question that will allow voters to rank their choice of candidates.

Under the election overhaul, ballots are counted at the state level in multiple rounds. Last-place candidates are eliminated until a candidate wins by a majority.

The voting style will apply to races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, state Senate and state House.

Proponents of ranked-choice voting say it will prevent a governor from being elected with less than 50 percent of the votes. That was the scenario when Gov. Paul LePage was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.

Ranked choice voting is sometimes also called “instant runoff.”