Maine has three parties and in the last two elections it has resulted in minority rule by an unpopular governor.

Yes. Exactly. Because of the game theory behind first past the post systems. This is explained in detail in the link I provided. It’s just math.

I’m not saying ranked choice voting will immediately lead to a third party victory, but it will immediately remove the barrier to them becoming viable. As it is now, they are not viable purely for mathematical reasons. There’s no other analysis necessary.

Without a parliamentary system, the third party fantasy will always fall short.

I like parliamentary systems, but you won’t get one here without another constitutional convention, or a revolution, or perhaps a group of states peacefully seceding. It’s too big of a leap to make.

The sad thing about ranked choice voting, is if it does lead to a third party success in Maine then the rest of the states will entrench themselves to block it from happening anywhere else. The one thing the two parties can agree on is they don’t want competition.

All that said, I totally understand the editorial choices you made with the article, because it’s probably the only way to get it past the Medium editorial staff.