Ranked Choice Voting

I was a fan of ranked-choice voting (RCV) long before it was in the news.  (Voters and democracy would be better off with ranked-choice voting, October 18)

The biggest single reason for it is that when you have a third candidate in the race, they generally split the vote of one party and give the election to the other party.  Which is wrong.

A three-party race also allows a person to win with less than 50% of the vote, which is also wrong. 

For these reasons, we need RCV. 

BUT BEWARE. 

The people selling it today also often ask for non-partisan elections and primaries.  And THAT is wrong. 

The single most important piece of information we need on a candidate is their party alignment.  Most elections only focus on one or two issues, but that candidate in office will vote on a hundred different things and most often with their party. 

In non-partisan primaries and elections, party alignments are usually ignored or unknown.  Let the parties choose their own candidates.  We don’t need 3 candidates of one party in the general elections.  This is the only way we can have more real choices in our elections.

So if you get a chance to vote for RCV, make sure you know what you are voting for.