Letter to the Editor

I was surprised to learn that Republicans are starting to use Ranked Choice voting to choose their candidates in their internal primaries. I thought Ranked Choice Voting appealed only to Left wing types. One reason I’ve read that many people like Ranked Choice Voting is because it allows everyone to vote for their favorite candidate without worrying their vote will be wasted if their first choice does not win, since if their favorite candidate gets tossed out, then their second choice gets counted as their vote.

Another reason is because Ranked Choice Voting makes campaigning more civil as candidates don’t want to alienate voters by harshly criticizing opponents because while any candidate might be a voter’s first choice, any candidate remaining after the first tally might be any voter’s second choice; so when a candidate gets tossed out, any remaining candidate could now get the votes of voters who listed the eliminated candidate as their first choice. I guess these reasons make as much sense to Right leaning voters as to Left leaning voters.

I predict it will not be long before Ranked Choice Voting becomes the voting norm in all elections in the United States. Learning to use Ranked Choice Voting will feel like learning to use a smart phone. At first a bit intimidating but as soon as we get used to this new thing we’ll see it is much more useful and gives us more of what we want than the old thing ever did.

— Jeremy Street