Brian Duff interviewed by Bangor Daily News on Tuesday's casino and mayoral votes

Brian Duff, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, was interviewed by the Bangor Daily News for a story on the Nov. 8th defeat of two casino referendums and a column on the Portland mayoral ballot.

“I think what happened was the ‘no casinos’ campaign had a very effective, very simple message — too much, too fast,” said Duff. “That’s a message that made a lot of sense to people: ‘How quickly do we want Maine to become a casino state?’”

Bangor Daily News blogger Seth Koenig also interviewed Duff about Portland's new ranked choice ballot for the city's first citizen-elected mayor. Duff, who attended the University of California at Berkeley, was familiar with the complicated ballot counting procedure because both Berkeley and Oakland, Calif. use the method.

Ranked choice voting “enfranchises members of minority groups or ideological minorities, because they can cast their vote for who they like best without worrying about wasting their votes,” Duff said.

UNE School of Social Work alumnus Michael Brennan won the Portland mayoral contest garnering the most first choice votes as well as ranked choice votes.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.