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 biggest problem with adoption is that the legislators that are needed to make this change only have their job because of the primary system. Many of them would never be elected in a ranked choice system so they would be actively firing themselves and losing the power they have. The Republicans fully know that they’re actually a minority despite their claims, every single voter survey shows their policies are unpopular to the majority of Americans. They would be actively destroying their party by supporting ranked choice voting.
Some States have ways of the electorate proposing laws directly, that the legislature doesn’t have control over, which helps combat this, but that’s only some States, and nothing at the national level. That’s essentially the only way we can shift away from this first past the post system at a national level, shifting to ranked choice at the state level until we whittle enough power away from the fascist party to actually have change.
Some cities in my state started using RCV for local elections. Then, almost immediately, the state legislature made an amendment to our constitution banning any voting system other than FPTP…
There are a number of states that have implemented ranked choice in various localities. That’s effectively the strategy being followed by Fair vote. State level changes since that’s where there is most agility. Do that enough and eventually national changes will seem obvious and overdue.
But really, what we could have done and can do is require at a minimum, as a litmus test, candidates who support RCV.
The more states demonstrate that it works, the easier it becomes to convince the nation.