Last spring I wrote a Maine Compass op-ed entitled, “Why am I still a Republican?” I continue to ask myself this as politics unfold.
Where are you coming from with your recent editorial entitled, “Poliquin should stop trashing the election”? Bruce Poliquin won re-election to Congress to represent the 2nd Congressional District by 2,000 votes. In the realms of sanctity and fairness, that would be the headline, but once again, forces from outside the 2nd District have worked against the wishes of the voters of our district. The cycle of southern Maine liberal arrogance continues.
Ranked-choice voting was created to insure that no Republican candidate would ever be elected again. Southern Maine liberals have been constantly frustrated with the conservative vote of northern Maine. Our voting block leans right, so in the minds of the political elites, rural Maine doesn’t vote the “right” way.
So convinced of their intellectual superiority, the liberals have simply awarded themselves extra votes. If the Democrats couldn’t win the first time, it just wasn’t fair, so they decided to have extra votes, as long as they’re not Republican votes. The Democrats can now say that they have three votes per Democratic voter to every one vote per Republican.
The voters of the 2nd District voted against ranked-choice voting by 20,000 votes, so which district supports RCV? Certainly not the 2nd District. The majority will of the voters of the 1st District, through ranked choice, will now be used to circumvent the majority will of the voters of the 2nd District.
The voters of the 2nd District soundly rejected ranked-choice voting, but the 1st District has overruled rural Maine and demanded we vote again and again until we get it “right.” In other words, voting the Southern Maine Way is all we have left. God help our republic.
Albert L. Godfrey Sr.
Fayette
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