Maine Ranked-Voting System Used for First Time in Primary: A Look at the Process

Plenty of our senior citizens have managed to become familiar with how to deal with personal computers which are considerably more complicated than making an ordered list of preferences when going to vote. Some of those same senior citizens volunteer to help people prepare their taxes every year. I can recall meeting one lady at our local library who was still doing it in her 90's.

The argument that it is difficult for certain segments of the population to understand is utterly specious given the more complex demands that all citizens manage to accomplish in our modern society. Deciding who would be your first, second and third choices for an office is about as difficult as deciding which would be your first, second and third choices for take out.

 

Actually using a ranked choice system IMPROVES the odds that a libertarian candidate will be elected.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the topic.

As you only have (generally) a 2 party system, I think a ranked ballot could work. If (down the road) those parties split for some reason, then you'd end up in the same situation that we Canadians faced.
We have 2 major LW Federal parties, and 1 major RW Federal Party.
Conservatives make up about 30-35% of the population here.

Under ranked ballot, Conservatives would rarely (if ever) win because the first two choices would be the LW party. Both would have to screw up royally for the Cons to get voted in.