This week’s edition!
Letter: Majority of voters should elect governor
To the Editor:
In the November 11 edition, Bob Stone wrote a letter extolling the victory of Republicans (“TCT assists in Republican avalanche,” TCT, page 3).
He included information that Mr. Lepage won the election by 10,000 votes. What he neglected to say was that Mr. Lepage received less than 40% of the vote. Therefore, nearly two-thirds of the votes were cast against him. This is by no means a mandate for the policies voiced by Mr. LePage.
I do not write to denigrate Mr. LePage’s election. I do write because the last few governors—with the exception of one term of Angus King—were won with less than 50% of the vote.
It is time for the state to adopt a policy to allow for the election of our governor by a majority of voters. This could be done with either a run-off election, which would be relatively expensive and time consuming, or by ranked choice voting.
We have had a Democrat, Independent and now a Republican elected without a clear mandate for the policies of the candidate. I believe it is time to make a correction to our electoral system so the majority of voters decide who will lead our state as governor.
It seems to me that both major parties and the citizens of Maine would be best represented with such a change.
Stan Tetenman
Poland
One Response to “Letter: Majority of voters should elect governor”
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Well, maybe my exuberance over the GOP taking the Blaine House, the State Senate and the House was a bit overstated with my use of the term “avalanche.” Perhaps the phrase “clean sweep” was in order.
With all due respect, I disagree with Mr. Tetenman. It is curious that calls for a majority election have suddenly arisen when the Republican wins a plurality. Hmmmm?
Not a peep when King and Baldacci won with vote totals in the 30’s. Hmmmm?
Bob Stone