Ranked Choice, Instant Runoff
By Ray Metcalfe, 907-344-4514
RayinAK@aol.com
Vote by Mail, Ranked
Choice, Instant Runoff, Advantages: Excepting that ballots would be
sent and returned through the U.S. mail, Ranked Choice, Instant Runoff
effectively implements a process similar to the process the U.S. House
and U.S. Senate use in the selection of its leaders; it is used because
it guarantees that no leader can be seated without the support of a
majority of the caucus and because is the fairest, most inclusive, and
democratic method Congress could devise.
In a Ranked Choice,
Instant Runoff, the voter has a number of votes in any given race equal
to not less than one half of the number of candidates in the race. If
two candidates, each voter has one vote. If three or four candidates,
each voter has two votes. if five or six candidates, each voter has
three votes. if nine or ten candidates, each voter would have five
votes. not more than one vote could be cast for any candidate. In
conventional races with multiple candidates, top vote getters often have
support from less than 50% of the electorate. Using the
multi vote ranked choice formula, the winner, while not always
everyone’s favorite, will always be someone with a measure of support from more than 50% of those who voted and will always be the most acceptable compromise between competing factions. The
gridlock that comes from a system that often results in the selection
of winners from the far end of each political spectrum would slowly fade
if this method of voting were adopted nationwide.
Ranked Choice, Instant Runoff will cut the cost of holding an election in half by eliminating the need and expense of a primary election. Vote by Mail
will reduce costs even further by eliminating the expense of election
day polling stations. As it did in Washington, and Oregon, Vote by Mail will bring about a dramatic increase in voter participation, and thereby guide political control closer the center. The Ranked Choice, Instant Runoff
effect will insure the election and representation by only those with
the broadest segment of our political spectrum supporting them and
thereby facilitate more bipartisan cooperation among elected officials.
Candidates will no longer have incentive to pander to the Right in the
primary only to move to the middle in the general. Conversely, those on
the Right, and those on the Left would do their best to supplement their
support from the middle. Middle candidates would seek votes from both
ends. Moderation would prevail and the taboos of talking across the
political isle would slowly vanish.
Alaska’s closed
Republican primary will be eliminated. Right wing conservatives worked
to close the Republican primary so they could be a relatively larger
fish in a smaller pond. Wherever possible, they have succeeded in
eliminating pro choice and/or moderate Republicans with any inclination
to work with Democrats. In a state with more Republicans than Democrats,
the closed primary nomination system simply works out to favor the
election of right wing Tea Party candidates.
Coupling Vote by
Mail, with Ranked Choice, Instant Runoff, will make it impossible to
purge the voter rolls of minorities and poor people through photo ID
requirements.
Adopting the ballot
tracking and vote counting system used and perfected by the State’s of
Washington, and Oregon, those vote counting issues raised by Diebold
Election Systems, Inc., will become a footnote in Alaska’s history
books.
Anchorage Tea Party
Candidate Don Smith would never have been elected to the Anchorage
School Board under Ranked Choice, Instant Runoff. One of his the two
mainstream opponents would have won.
The runoff of the
top two vote getters in the Egyptian election turned into a disaster for
Egypt. –– Following a primary election in which the three mainstream
candidates were eliminated sharing 52% of the vote while extremists at
opposite ends of the Egyptian political spectrum were nominated to run
against each other with 24% of the vote each. The outcome of Egypt’s top
two runoff system left it mathematically
impossible for Egypt’s voters to elect a president with the genuine
support of a majority of Egypt’s voters. Had Egypt had a Ranked Choice,
Instant Runoff system of voting, it is highly probable that one of the
three mainstream candidates would have come out on top. Egypt’s new
democracy collapsed in the wake of the election of a religious zealot
determined to impose his religious convictions onto all of Egypt.
Many democrats were
in a snit over Democrat Harry Crawford’s primary run against Democrat
incumbent Betty Davis. Under Ranked Choice, Instant Runoff, it wouldn’t
have been an issue. Anyone casting one vote for Crawford would likely
have cast their other vote for Davis. In either case, the voting public
would decide which of the two would have had the best shot at beating
their Republican opponent Anna Fairclough.
Ballots mailed along
with two pages of explanation for each issue in a Tabloid Sized Voter’s
Guide would go a long ways toward better informing the voting public.
Access to an inexpensive “Voter’s Tabloid” would have a leveling
influence on the playing field between rich and poor, and between
incumbents and non-incumbents. Today’s Voters Pamphlet is seldom taken
to the polls for reference. With a Voter’s Tabloid next to an election
ballot on the kitchen table, voters could familiarize themselves with
candidates and issues they hadn’t heard of, they could pause to consult
with friends, and they could make voting a family event.