WBUR or WGBH radio ran a good segment on ranked choice voting yesterday. I was disappointed when the MA ballot initiative to implement RCV failed in November, so I'll spend a minute or two today on the topic.
In RCV, the goal is to find a candidate that is supported by a majority of voters, meaning more than 50%, not simply a plurality. The way it does this is to allow each voter to rank their choices. If a majority is reached on the first count, then the vote is done. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes is dropped and those votes are reassigned to their second choice. This continues until a candidate with majority support is found.
In practice, this has two effects. First, since it increases the reward for speaking to a broad audience, incivility and extremism are punished. Second, if the two-party system is putting up candidates that do not represent their constituencies well, it gives a potential 3rd party viable access to the electorate. Hopefully we'll get another chance - both those outcomes seem worthwhile to me.
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