“A LIBERAL,” said Robert Frost, an American poet, “is a man too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel.” An ad released less than a week before election day by Mark Eves and Betsy Sweet (pictured above), opponents in Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, seemed a paragon of Frostian liberalism. Ms Sweet, who resembles a slightly less caffeinated Elizabeth Warren, urged her supporters to vote for Mr Eves; while Mr Eves asked his supporters to back Ms Sweet. On election day the two gripped and grinned together outside an elementary school in Portland’s lovely West End.
In fact, their alliance was not wet leftism; it was a strategic gambit. On June 12th Maine conducted the first-ever statewide election using ranked-choice voting (RCV), in which voters rank the entire field rather than just voting for a single candidate. Trailing in the polls, Ms Sweet and Mr Eves figured they could boost their chances by campaigning for second-place votes.
RCV has long...Continue reading
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