Residents of Maine voted yesterday to keep their new system of Ranked Choice Voting and to use it in the midterms.
Ranked choice voting, for those unfamiliar with it, is a change away from plurality voting, which allows you to number your preferred candidates on your ballot paper rather than just tick the one you want.
If you want to cast a ballot equivalent to an old plurality vote, you just put a '1' beside the candidate you'd previously have put a tick beside.
But the new system allows you to express additional preferences: So if your #1 candidate doesn't win, the computer moves your vote to be a vote for the candidate you've labelled #2, etc. You can number as many or as few candidates as you wish.
As I have said before here, I think changing to ranked choice voting is the easiest change Americans can take to massively improve their political system.
As everyone familiar with it knows, plurality voting is really annoying and silly, as it basically forces voters to pick between two options, least their vote end up being a 'spoiler'. The biggest effect of the ranked choice voting system is it allows voters to vote for an independent or 3rd or 4th party candidate as their #1 preference, safe in the knowledge that their vote will still "count" if that person doesn't get elected because they can put a major party candidate as #2 or #3.
Maine's governor, the infamously somewhat insane Paul LePage, weighed in: He told reporters that the new voting system is "the most horrific thing in the world."
Ranked choice voting, for those unfamiliar with it, is a change away from plurality voting, which allows you to number your preferred candidates on your ballot paper rather than just tick the one you want.
e.g.
Maggie Jones . . . . . . .
John Smith . . . . . . . . . 3
Simon Archer . . . . . . . 1
Aaron Daily . . . . . . . . .
Paula Scarlet . . . . . . . . 2
Maggie Jones . . . . . . .
John Smith . . . . . . . . . 3
Simon Archer . . . . . . . 1
Aaron Daily . . . . . . . . .
Paula Scarlet . . . . . . . . 2
But the new system allows you to express additional preferences: So if your #1 candidate doesn't win, the computer moves your vote to be a vote for the candidate you've labelled #2, etc. You can number as many or as few candidates as you wish.
As I have said before here, I think changing to ranked choice voting is the easiest change Americans can take to massively improve their political system.
As everyone familiar with it knows, plurality voting is really annoying and silly, as it basically forces voters to pick between two options, least their vote end up being a 'spoiler'. The biggest effect of the ranked choice voting system is it allows voters to vote for an independent or 3rd or 4th party candidate as their #1 preference, safe in the knowledge that their vote will still "count" if that person doesn't get elected because they can put a major party candidate as #2 or #3.
Maine's governor, the infamously somewhat insane Paul LePage, weighed in: He told reporters that the new voting system is "the most horrific thing in the world."
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