
FairVote notes that this happened in nine of the 11 Maine governor’s races between 19. Majority rule: In a winner-take-all election with more than two candidates, a candidate can triumph even with less than a majority of the votes. In recent years, organizations like the nonprofit FairVote have championed ranked-choice as a solution to what they perceive as the unfairness and dysfunction of American elections. “The system fell out of favor in the 1950s” - in part because at the time ranked-choice counting had to be done by hand - “until a resurgence of use by cities in the last two decades.” “Several cities adopted it throughout the 1920s and 1930s,” Amanda Zoch of the National Conference of State Legislatures noted last year.

Even in the United States, it has a long history. Ranked-choice voting isn’t as novel as it may seem to most Americans: Several countries, including Ireland and Australia, have used the system in nationwide elections for years.
