Maine will be the first place to use the system, called ranked-choice voting, in statewide races this June (it’s already used in some local elections). The system kicks in for contests that have three or more candidates. Here’s how it works:

Voters rank the candidates in their party’s primary in order of preference.

If no candidate gets an outright majority, the candidate who got the fewest first-place votes is eliminated.

The second-place votes of those who supported the eliminated candidate then get distributed to the remaining candidates.

The process continues until one candidate gets more than 50 percent of the first-place votes and is declared the winner.