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The ����ֱ�� School of Arts and Humanities will partner with The Maine Monitor this week to host a conversation about Maine’s rank-choice voting results in the recent primary election, a timely and trending topic in Maine at the moment.

The panel discussion, “Monitor Talks: Examining Maine’s Primary Election and the Role of Ranked-Choice Voting,” will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 24, in the Newberry Room of Alumni Hall on ����ֱ��’s Portland Campus for the Health Sciences. The discussion, co-hosted by ����ֱ��'s Community News Initiative within the School of Arts and Humanities, is free and open to all via  

The event will feature a cross-section of perspectives on the electoral process, the role of ranked-choice voting, and its impact on the recent primaries. Panelists include Chrissy Hart, executive director of Democracy Maine; Ronald Schmidt, Ph.D., chair of the University of Southern Maine’s Department of Political Science; and Aaron Chadbourne, a former senior policy advisor for Gov. Paul LePage. Matt Junker, The Maine Monitor’s elections and government reporter, will moderate the event.

Since 2024, The Monitor has sent reporters to ����ֱ�� journalism classes to offer workshops, used student Community News Fellows as journalism interns, and hosted other undergraduate interns. 

“Given our partnership, it made sense to offer ����ֱ�� as a host site for a ‘Monitor Talks’ event in Portland,” said ����ֱ�� Professor Michael J. Cripps, Ph.D., the co-director of the Community News Initiative and director of the School of Arts and Humanities.

The Maine Monitor regularly hosts live journalism events — panels moderated by Monitor reporters — to engage the public in conversations around important issues of the day. Because of the large voter turnout and public interest in the recent primary, the news agency’s leadership was eager to convene a public forum to dig into the election results, said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, The Monitor’s executive director.

“It was a consequential election, and I know many Mainers have questions, including about the role of rank-choice voting, and are eager to hear analysis from the experts,” Schweitzer-Bluhm said in an email. “We look forward to the insights from the panelists and the dialogue that Matt Junker will facilitate, including with the people who attend in-person and on Zoom. We appreciate the opportunity to work with ����ֱ�� on an important topic for community engagement.”