Allow ranked choice voting in municipal elections

I urge our legislators and governor to support L.D. 859, a bill to allow municipalities to use ranked choice voting (RCV) in municipal elections.

By now, most of us understand the advantages of RCV. Thanks to RCV, election races with more than two contenders — which have become ever more common — can be adjudicated fairly and objectively, using simple math, to identify a winner supported by an actual majority of the voters.

We’ve all seen the bizarre, disastrous, and unfair results of old-time non–RCV elections when Paul Lepage, for example, was twice “elected” as governor even though 61% of Mainers didn’t want him. That’s not a democracy.

L.D. 859 helps us spread the advantages of RCV to local municipalities by letting them decide for themselves how to elect their government. (It does not require them to change their election methods if they don’t want to.)

I live in Harpswell, a non-charter town, which means we can’t switch to RCV even if we want to. That’s not fair. So I particularly hope L.D. 859 passes and is eventually extended to towns like mine.

Democracies grow stronger and better over time by the accumulation of many small steps. L.D. 859 is one such step in the right direction.

George Simonson,
Harpswell

Our inept response to Ukraine

I’m not old enough to remember World War II, but I do remember my history class discussing the country coming together to fight a dictator (Hitler). Women worked in factories producing war planes and children gathered scrap iron to recycle into these planes, and the men, ah the men … .

So the question is, what would have happened if America did not enter World War II? Would all of Europe now be controlled by a dictator? Would more or fewer minorities have been killed?

I also remember from my history class that America, at one time, valued life and liberty above all else. So another question; what will happen now that Biden has allowed the brutal murder of women and children in Ukraine? Are we as Americans comfortable with murder as long as it doesn’t happen on our shores?

And what about those men who fought in World War II? My guess is they are all in Heaven, watching our inept response to Ukraine with tears flowing.

Larry Paul,
Woolwich

A generation’s failures

As I approach my fourth quarter-century, I want to send an apology to those who have yet to reach the end of their first. I am sorry we have left you with a world that is less peaceful, more polluted, less democratic, more crowded, and less fair. I am sorry that women are not paid the same for equal work. I am sorry that politicians see fit to control women’s bodies. I am sorry that there are so many of you that are hungry. I am sorry there is no universal health care. I am sorry there is less wilderness for you to explore. I am sorry the environment is in turmoil. I am sorry you don’t have all the opportunities we were given. I am sorry you don’t get the teachers you deserve. I am sorry we have let money be more important than human rights. I apologize that we could not have done better. Now you face a world where there are still people in power that do not care about you. Many of us tried and our voices were not heard.

Bart Chapin,
Arrowsic