June Election Postponed Until July 14th

Governor Mills announced today that she is opting to postpone the State Primary Election, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday, June 9th until Tuesday July 14th. The upcoming election will include primary elections for the U.S. Congressional and House seats as well as the State level primaries for all 151 Maine House and Senate seats. These will be "CLOSED" primaries which means that only registered party members, Democrats, Republicans and Green Parties will be allowed to cast ballots but only within their designated political party.

After consulting with the Secretary of State and others about possible alternatives including mail-in and absentee voting alternatives but also possibly maintaining the original date. Their consensus was ultimately to postpone the date based on the ultimate health and well being of the voters also taking into account various deadlines involved and the planning needed to prepare for the General Election. I believe it was a prudent and wise decision.

With that said, what's missing in this scenario? I have been a continuing advocate for the OPEN primary system for quite sometime. First, the "closed system" discriminates against those voters who are unenrolled, most commonly known as the Independent. This group, including myself, represents close to 37% to of the electorate, not an insignificant number to be ignored in the democratic electoral process. Independents should be adequately included in any election. Second, the continued use of the Ranked Choice Voting system as part of the election process will insure that candidates achieve a true majority representing the overall will of the electorate. A winner will not be chosen by a so-called plurality which would represent only a minority and ultimately lead to a minority representative government. This is not what our founding fathers intended.