Mainers decided to begin using ranked-choice voting in elections for the state Legislature, governor and federal offices all the way back in November of 2016 — the first state in the nation to do so. But nearly a decade and multiple court cases later, full implementation of that new system approved by 52 percent of voters has languished in a sort of legal and administrative purgatory. Ranked-choice voting is used in state and federal primaries. It is also used in federal races during the general election. But it is not used in general elections for state representative, state senator or governor. In the Democratic and Republican primaries this June, Maine voters will rank candidates for governor, the state Legislature and federal offices in order of preference. In this system, if one candidate is the first-choice pick of more than half the voters, that candidate is declared the winner.…