Partisanship and Gridlock – A Solution
Ranked Choice Voting
A couple days ago I floated the analogy that we're stuck in political gridlock because everyone refuses to change the dial on a thermostat. If you give a single degree to the "other side", you lose, so why ever agree on anything? You can find that post here if you missed it or want to see what I was talking about.
In the comments, I shared my idea for a solution to this problem: ranked choice voting. I had a couple people ask what it was, so here I am to explain.
Ranked choice voting is the easiest way to pick a winner from a large pool of options. Here is what happens in that system:
Imagine an election with 6 candidates. Each one is situated at various points on the political spectrum. The winner is the candidate who can get over 50% of the vote. Round 1 of voting happens, and no one is even close. We need a second round of voting. Candidate 1 got the least number of votes in the first round, so he gets kicked out of the next round of voting. Everyone who voted for candidate 1 has to pick a new person to vote for now. Everyone goes back to the polls and votes again. Once again, no one got more than 50% of the vote. Candidate 2 had the fewest votes this time and is kicked out. All their voters need to pick a new name now. Round 3 and 4 proceed the same way, with candidates 3 and 4 coming up last in their respective elections and getting kicked out too.
Now we are about to begin round 5, and only candidates 5 and 6 are left. One of them will get over 50% of the vote, because people can only vote for these two people at this point. Round 5 ends, and candidate 5 has 52% of the vote and wins!
Here's what that looks like visually in case I lost you:
"But DollarsAndSense," you say. "That is way too many trips to the polls! This would take forever!"
Yes it would. But I have another solution. If you use this ballot in Round 1, there only needs to be a single round. Let’s assume there are thousands of voters and we take a look at just three of these new ballots:
What happens behind the scenes is this: the people running the election total up everyone's first choice. Whatever candidate is in last place get's their number 1 scratched out, and now their number 2 is their choice. The next round happens. The loser of this round has anyone who voted for them get their votes shifted to the next candidate. This continues until someone gets over 50% of the vote. Still confused? Here's where those three sample ballots would end up in each behind the scene rounds of voting.
Voter C said "you're a moron DollarsAndSense, I'm just gonna vote my old way." His vote counted for candidate 3 all the way until his guy got last place, and then his vote disappeared.
Voter B said "Well, I really don't care for 1, 3, or 5. I love 2, but I'd also be fine with 4, or 6." In the final round of voting, she is getting her third pick, but at least she didn't "throw her vote away" on a minority candidate like what happens today.
Voter A said "I hate number 6. Anyone but him." As you can see, his vote never gets to candidate 6, even though he voted for all the least popular candidates leading up to the final round.
This method is brilliant because it accommodates all types of voters. You want to vote major party like today? Feel free! But if you'd rather vote for several fringe people who have no shot at winning, you are completely able to do it in this style of election and still have your vote "count". Can you imagine what the US election would have looked like if people had been free to do this? Instead of pulling the level for Trump only because they hated Clinton, they could have voted for who they really wanted in office, and vice versa with the other side.
I cannot see a single downside to this method of voting, and I have been trying to find one for years. You could even keep the whole electoral college system and still do this on a state by state level, if that matters to you. I'm not arguing for or against the electoral college today.
What do you think? Should we change elections to Ranked Choice Voting? Or is the current popular vote better? I would love to hear your opinions down below!
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It sounds like a mathematically sound system. I love it except for it doesn't take the human factor into account. Elections could still be bought and we'd likely still end up with someone from the false left/right paradigm. I don't think it's possible to even run for the highest office in the land without being an evil person that thinks they know what's best for everyone.
The government which governs best governs least. In other words, stay off my lawn, and I'll stay off yours!
I love your conviction! 😄 I fantasize about a minimalist government myself, but I don’t think we have the right kind of society for it. That requires a HUGE dose of personal responsibility that I don’t see some people possessing or even wanting.
I know. Lack of personal responsibility is what brings us to where we are today as a society. And once that cat is let out of the bag, it would take something cataclysmic to put it back in.
There’s an entire genre of fiction about that very concept... 😉 ever read anything by James Wesley Rawles or A. American?
No, but it sounds like I should give them a read. Thanks!
It’s basically apocalypse porn 😂
Rawles follows an economic collapse. American follows an EMP.
One Second After by Forstchen is another good EMP one. My favorite though is Lights Out by David Crawford. Oh and you would love that one because the main character is into martial arts...
Yup yup. Ranked choice please.
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Definitely food for thought, @dollarsandsense. I know the system is flawed, and the popular vote just seems so fraught with issues. I actually ran for state representative about a thousand years ago, and the whole process was so frustrating - and that was just a low level spot! It would be nice to shake up the process somehow...
Maine is actually trying this now with their state level offices, as well as a few municipalities. I’m hoping it takes off!
Did you ever write about your experience? I would love hearing more about that!
That's wicked interesting! Who'da thunk Maine would be the one to do it, and not my "Live Free or Die" state! 😜
Actually, I haven't written about it, except maybe as a journal entry (as this experience was looooong before the interwebz were a thing). I may just have to give it a go someday soon - if I do, I'll be sure to shout out. Thanks for the suggestion!
It definitely sounds better than what we have now! I never like the main candidates so I always get people saying "your just throwing your vote away" which just makes me feel even less inclined to vote at all.
Exactly! And third party candidates really do have a kind of spoiler effect. The funny thing is that even if we shift to this, one of the “main” candidates may end up winning anyway, but at least people will have felt free to vote for whoever they really wanted instead of just voting against the one they didn’t.
I heard this discussed on NPR they were interviewing the lady running the program in Maine.
It definitely beats our current system.
I just wonder how it would work if human laziness got factored in.
I think it's high time we were able to vote using our smart phones and some type of two factor authentication set up when you register. If people didn't have to view voting as standing in line clutching your newsprint catalogue of candidates and hoping that there's not a long line, then careful decisions might be made.
Hmm, interesting. Not that I disagree with you that you should be able to vote from your phone (no difference between than and an absentee ballot, in my opinion), but I question if opening it up like that would make people more thoughtful. My gut feeling is that people would put less thought into their decisions if you can do it between games of candy crush on the toilet 😆
Good point :p
I guess when I'm on my phone I'm mostly doing reading and research but I'm probably not in the majority on that.
I do think that it could increase voter turnout however especially if coupled with a system where people didn't feel obliged to vote for a candidate they don't favor.
Yeah I’d say you’re most definitely in the minority there!
My real fear would be that someone would figure out some kind of macro or app you could download that just voted straight ticket with the click of a button.