I wanted to take the time to write in support of ranked
voting in every election and for every level of office.
Ranked voting is essentially an electoral reform that allows
voters to rank their preferred candidates in an election. It may come off as
complicated but it is actually as “simple as 1-2-3” as supporters of ranked
voting in Fort Collins like to say.
In short, a candidate that receives a majority of first
choice votes will win the election in the same way that we elect candidates
now. What ranked voting does is allow for a contingency if no candidate wins a
majority. Second choice votes are distributed from among the votes of the “last
place” candidate and, more often than not, would go toward a candidate who
would then have a majority of the vote.
It may seem confusing at first but it’s actually elegant and
simplistic. Let’s say 100 people in a room are voting for their favorite flavor
of ice cream, they can vote for Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry or Mint.
Vanilla receives 48 votes
Chocolate receives 45 votes
Mint receives 5 votes
Strawberry receives 2 votes
Luckily everyone got to rank their preferences for ice cream
and the two people who voted for strawberry got to select a second choice. One
of them voted for Chocolate and one Vanilla as their second choice. Those 2nd
choice votes are now distributed to the candidates still remaining - so now Vanilla
has 49 votes, Chocolate 46, and Mint still has 5. No candidate has a majority.
So from there we take the 2nd choice votes of
everyone who voted for Mint and distribute them. For illustrative purposes
let’s say everyone who voted for Mint listed Chocolate as their second choice,
giving Chocolate 51 votes and Vanilla 49 votes. A close election to be sure but
more people indicated a preference for Chocolate and so Chocolate wins over
Vanilla.
Without ranked voting Chocolate would lose even though
more people prefer it because Vanilla received the most votes even
though Vanilla does not have the most support. This type of voting creates an
“instant runoff” election only in the event of their being no clear winner.
Ranked voting has many supporters and we believe this system
of voting allows for a more representative process. One of the leaders of
Fort Collins Ranked Voting, Eric Fried (a member of the Green Party), had this
to say:
“The higher you go up the food chain of the Democratic
Party, the more corporate it becomes. Because they figure they can move to the
right – and who are people like us [Green Party members] gonna vote for anyway,
I mean it’s the Democrat or Republican and we don’t want to elect a Republican
– so we’re going to vote for the Democrat no matter how far to the right they
get.” ~Eric Fried~
Mr. Fried’s point is that Green Party voters have an
incentive to vote for a Democrat they don’t align with rather than vote for a
member of their own party because, in a close election, if they don’t support
the Democrat they may inadvertently help elect their last choice.
Of course he’s illustrating the point in the context of
wanting to voice support of a progressive candidate over a candidate that
receives large donations from special interests. His first choice candidate may
not win the election so his second choice, the Democrat, will receive his
ranked vote in the runoff, but Fried’s voice will be heard by showing support
of progressive policies first.
Ranked voting will help break some of the undue influence
held by the two major parties by providing more incentive for independent and
third party candidates to get into a race.
It is a critical step toward ending hyper-partisan politics
in the United States.
