It is about time that Americans demand a better voting system, rank choice voting. But it will only happen if people speak out and demand it. As of today, Maine is the only state that uses rank choice voting in the presidential general election.
In rank choice voting, you rank the order of the candidates, picking your first choice, second choice and so-on. This is mathematically superior method of voting when there are more than two candidates to chose from, because it provides a method to determine a candidate that has the vote of the majority of the population. This is not unlike holding a run-off if nobody wins the clear majority, but the second choice voting is done simultaneously during the first vote instead of holding a second vote.
The U.S. Presidential Election is a good example of a system that could benefit from rank choice voting. You often hear people say that they don't like either the Republican or Democratic choices, but also that they don't want to "waste" their vote for an independent or smaller party candidate. Often, an independent candidate may have a platform very similar to one of the primary candidates and can have an impact by splitting votes with the primary candidate. In a close election, this could sway the outcome to the less popular choice.
Rank choice voting enables a voter to use their 1st choice for the candidat
e they truly want rather than strategically voting for the "lesser of two evils" and still know that if their favorite doesn't win, then their 2nd choice vote will still be applied to pick from the best of the r
emaining candidates.
For more information on how rank choice voting works, or what you can do to support rank choice voting, visit a site like FairVote.org.
BrianM
MikeB
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