Nice little article about Ranked Choice Voting on CNN today

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

I'm surprised CA Gov Gavin Newsom thought it was confusing. We have been doing it in Maine and it is not confusing at all. That is the biggest argument they have against it is that supposedly some people think it is confusing. It is actually a very simple ranking system and I think if you can't handle that then maybe you aren't smart enough to be voting in the first place. Children could do it, seriously. I guess Dems are different in CA than they are in ME. It is widely supported by Democrats in Maine. When politicians say it is confusing, what they really mean is that they think they'll have an easier time getting elected with plurality voting because they don't have to appeal to as many people. In Maine, it is the Republicans that like plurality voting. They used to be able to eke out a win with less than 50% (even less than 40%) of the vote when there were independents in a plurality race. There always are independents running in Maine. Are races generally just Republican versus Democrat only in other parts of the country?


https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/27/politics/what-is-ranked-choice-voting-maine-election-2020/index.html

[pat_k]

1. Action alert: Lobby your state's Democratic Party leadership to adopt RCV/IRV in their primaries

Democrats have control over how they conduct primaries. If we could get our respective state parties to adopt ranked choice voting in primaries, people would see how straightforward it is. This would help set the stage for adopting in state and federal elections.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

2. Yes, good idea n/t

[dsc]

3. I know this is a losing battle

but I really wish the press would discuss this using the correct terminology. The voting method (that is the casting of ballots) is ranked choice voting, but the counting method being used is instant run off. Ranked choice ballots can be used for many different ways of counting votes. There is the Borda Count, which is a method where a candidate in say a four candidate race gets 4 pts for each 1st place vote, 3 for each 2nd place vote, 2 for each 3rd place vote, and 1 for each 4th place vote. The candidate with the most points wins. The Heisman trophy is awarded using this method. It also can be used to do pair wise comparison. In say a three person race you look at how A would have done against only B, A against only C, and B against only C. Award 1 pt for a win, 1/2 for a time, and 0 for a loss. Most points win.

I do favor using instant run off for multi candidate elections.