Maine's 2nd Congressional District:
Maine CD-2: It’s a Ranked Choice Voting Disaster of Democrats’ Own Making
Ranked Choice Voting is causing chaos in northern Maine
Now, those “blank” ballots were initially and erroneously believed by some (including the Maine Wire) to be ballots that voted in the presidential election but blanked the congressional election. However, those ballots are actually ballots that left the 1st Choice option in the CD2 race blank. Those ballots may have made valid 2nd Choice selections, but Maine doesn’t have a way of figuring that out without running them through the optical scanners as part of the RCV system.
Here’s where things get fuzzy: Under Maine’s RCV rules, a ballot that has a blank 1st Choice but a filled in 2nd Choice should have the 2nd Choice treated as if it were the 1st Choice. But no one will know whether those ballots made a valid 2nd Choice until after the RCV process is completed. In other words, a ballot that was (1-Blank, 2-Theriault, 3-Golden) would be interpreted in Maine’s RCV system as a first choice vote for Theriault.
https://www.themainewire.com/2024/11/maine-cd-2-its-a-ranked-choice-voting-disaster-of-democrats-own-making/