In 235 years we have evolved enough to be able to embrace this really cool idea. Right now, let’s say there’s 3 candidates for an election. You not only pick who you would want to win, you also have to identify who your preference is amongst the other 2.
When all the ballots are counted, if the top candidate has a majority, then they are the winner. But if no clear winner is determined head to head, the rankings come into effect, and whoever was the lowest ranked candidate is eliminated and the remaining candidates re-counted with the next lowest ranked getting eliminated and so on until a single candidate remains with a majority of the remaining voters as their preferred candidate.
The key is to get elected officials to win with a majority of support and to do it without having to hold expensive run-off elections. Why is that so important? For several reasons.
First, right now candidates don’t care at all about appealing to those who don’t agree with them or who aren’t a member of their party. All candidates care about today is getting one more vote than the other side, so the focus is on exciting their base enough and scaring enough of the undecideds to turn out to vote for them.
Second, voter apathy is arguably the biggest threat to our republic. Anything we can do to shorten the election cycle and give voters a break is a good thing. So many times when elections go to a run-off, far less voters turn out for the run-off (and it’s usually the more extreme voters). The only people who like run-off elections are those who make money off of them. RCV gets as many voters’ backup choices all at one time and saves them from having to go out and vote again, and saves everyone from weeks more of campaigning, tv ads, mailers, phone calls, etc.
If candidates go into an election knowing they have to appeal to a majority of the voters, they will run their campaigns differently. Their incentives are changed. Now their incentives are to scare, lie, attack, and be negative. Under ranked choice voting candidates’ incentives are to be more positive, more solution-oriented, and more broadly appealing. Instead of running to the extremes, they will be incentivized to run to the middle. Instead of getting a bunch of hard line D’s and R’s in office who just talk past each other, we will get more moderate candidates in office who will work together.
There are so many ancillary benefits as well. The second politics becomes less negative and less personal we will all collectively see far better quality candidates running for office. We all know so many people who would be amazing public officials but none of them want to run for office, and who can blame them?
Unfortunately, as John Adams once said, “if good men won’t run, other men will.”
The other big benefit to RCV is that no longer will independents and 3rd parties be accused of being spoilers. Voters can vote guilt-free FOR someone and still rank the party they lean to second.
I could go on and on about my love for ranked choice voting, but I won’t. Below are links to some of the articles I’ve written on the subject before. Also, for more info on ranked choice voting, check out FairVote. They’ve been the non-partisan thought leaders on RCV for decades.
Ideally I’d love to see ranked choice voting paired with open primaries as Final Five Voting. Check out the Institute for Political Innovation for more on that.
Column: Abraham Lincoln’s solution for the 2024 Republican primaries
Ranked choice voting would be good government
The name is the same, but they’re different Florida candidates | Column
Perry Waag 