In support of Ranked Voting...

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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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.