Dear Editor:

Action Now (Houston, Texas), Fair Vote (Takoma Park, Maryland), Level the Playing Field (Alexandria, Virginia) and individual out-of-state, deep pocket contributors paid over $340,000 to sell Maine voters a bill of goods about Ranked Choice Voting(RCV). On multiple occasions and in multiple forums, from their own website, print media, and public broadcasting debates, leaders of RCV repeatedly told voters that the question was constitutional. With the Maine Supreme Court unanimous opinion that RCV is unconstitutional, Democrat proponents and big money donors are back, and are now pushing a constitutional amendment.

The same people told us that RCV was used in other countries like Ireland. What they didn’t tell us, however, is that there are NO single seat districts in Ireland. Ireland’s parliament has 158 representatives that are elected from 40 districts. When you vote, you may be voting for as many as 5 representatives from your district. In some cases, a candidate may be elected with less than 20 percent of the votes cast.

Remember Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s quote regarding the Affordable Care Act? “We have to pass this bill so you can find out what is in it.” Don’t let this happen again. The campaign for RCV was purposely misleading just like a number of the other questions on the ballot. Don’t believe the smooth arguments to the contrary. RCV is a bad idea for Maine and efforts to push a constitutional amendment need to be rejected.

Hubert Padgett

Newcastle