Portland Press Herald editorial:

Ranked-choice voting has twice won the backing of a majority of Maine voters. It meets the demands of the U.S. Constitution. It is used in every race that the state constitution allows, and it will continue to be until the Legislature or the people say otherwise.

That’s the upshot of a decision last week in U.S. District Court, where Judge Lance E. Walker denied a request by four Maine voters — backed by state and national Republicans — to prohibit the use of ranked-choice voting in the U.S. Senate election in November.

The plaintiffs were three registered Republicans and an independent. In trying to set aside the ranked-choice law approved twice at the polls, they in part argued that Maine voters who decline to rank candidates, either out of confusion or dislike for the law, are given less of a voice in the election than those who do, and thus are essentially disenfranchised.

We hear this argument a lot. As Walker’s ruling shows, it’s hogwash.