Update: Despite passing with strong majorities in both chambers of the legislature, it has come to my attention that the ranked choice voting bill in Maine did not make its way to the governor’s desk. Due to an 11th hour procedural movement, the bill was sent back to the Senate. According to the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting, the bill is not dead.

Poor Bernie Sanders. It’s not enough that he had the balls to challenge The Anointed One in the Democratic Party primary in 2016. It’s not enough that in doing so he split open a divide in his party that makes the San Andreas Fault look like a crevasse you could hop, skip or jump over wearing a sturdy hiking shoe.

As a doctor, I believe in the science underlying vaccination, and what Jonas Salk, Edward Jenner and others in this field contributed to our understanding of how immunization works.

But I am steadfastly against Senate Bill 276 because it is trying to fix a problem that does not exist.

Many people who favorably view Donald Trump and politicians like him, talk up his “authenticity” or his “telling it as it is”. Even many of those who profoundly dislike his politics, his manner, or both, grudgingly admit to the appeal of his “what you see is what you get” quality.

Yet and at the same time, many of his supporters – and almost all of their opponents – simultaneously recognize the blatant falsity of many of his statements.

The biggest story happening right now nationwide that is not getting any attention from the mainstream media are the campaigns, ballot proposals, signature drives, and legislative efforts going on RIGHT NOW to give voters an election system that protects their right to a meaningful and equal vote in the taxpayer-funded election process -- from the primary to the general election.