Ranked choice voting (RCV) — also known as instant runoff voting (IRV) — makes our elections better by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference.
RCV is straightforward: Voters have the option to rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third and so forth. If your first choice doesn’t have a chance to win, your ballot counts for your next choice.
RCV works in all types of elections and supports more representative outcomes. RCV means better choices, better campaigns, and better representation.
Originally Posted By u/Albany50501 At 2025-04-22 02:51:32 PM | Source
The problem is not the voting mechanics. The problem is that there are a lot of idiots voting. Were you around for the 2024 election?
More Americans didn't vote in the 2024 election than voted for Trump. Plenty of Trump voters acknowledged that they didn't like him. If people had more than two choices, they're less likely to not vote or to vote for the fascist.
A huge part of the problem is the voting mechanics. People are forced to back candidates they don't support because of a moronic two-party system that only makes sense as a historical relic, and barely even then.
Will this change the minds of MAGA voters to not vote for a racist dipshit? Your proposal does not deal with the large amount of people who voted for the current jerk. You have a hammer and everything looks like a nail to you.
you misunderstand, I think. The number of people who voted for 47 is a product of the current voting system. changing the system will do a few things:
some people who voted for 47 may have still selected them as their first choice, but in a different system with ranked choices, one of their second or third choices may have been elected instead, if that candidate had more support overall from a greater majority of the voters (depending on the system uses to select the winner) but basically: better to have a large majority's agreed second choice than a tiny majority's first choice
secondly, some people who voted for 47 may have chosen someone else as their first choice if they did not feel it was the only way to make sure their least favorite candidate wouldn't be elected - a ranked system removes the "spoiler" effect.
so if you see that people who voted the way they did, did so because of the FTTP system AND importantly how the FTTP system can be manipulated with certain types of propaganda, meticulously targeted, to elect an extreme candidate, then it's not a matter of first "changing their minds," and more a matter of having a system that elects the representative that most represents most of the people. that is an effective tool against extremism.
Ranked choice also opens up for people voting for the "safe" choice while still expressing discontent by ranking another much less viable option representing their real preference. This also generates a strong signal of how strong support alternative candidates have, giving them a significant advantage in determining when it's worth campaigning
It's worth remembering that the majority of votes cast for President in 2024 were for a candidate other than Donald Trump; he got less than 50% of the votes that were cast for President. Making it so that those majority of votes aren't automatically split (and thus diminished) can be impactful, imo.