RCV: Rebuttal

Traub says that by flooding the election with “a plethora of Democrat candidates,” all the votes from “losing Democrats” go to the top Democrat. This is a significant untruth about Ranked Choice Voting.

I clearly stated that there was only one Democrat candidate in House District 31, and two Republicans. In the second round, the Democrat got the most votes because some of the Republicans voted for her as a second choice. Not because there was a bunch of Democrat candidates who somehow stacked the system (not possible).

Also, even if there were multiple Democrat candidates, their second or subsequent round votes don’t automatically go to a Democrat candidate. People CHOOSE the 2nd, 3rd, etc. choices. Dogmatic party hacks are trying to stop RCV in states because people can vote across party lines.

Looking back at the 2022 Alaska Election, there was only ONE election that had to go to a second round that had more than one Democrat candidate. House District 18 had two Democrat candidates that in the first round got 55% of the votes. In the second round, the winning Democrat candidate only got 52% of the vote because some of the first round “Democrat”  voters then voted for the Republican candidate.

House District 28 had FOUR Republican candidates and no Democrat candidates. Talk about a plethora of candidates! The leading Republican candidate won in the third round, saving the state a run-off election. The opposition to RCV uses FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), or just plain old misinformation to get people to distrust RCV.

Finally, Traub said “Independent voters usually lean one way or the other. Surely they can figure out what party they want to support.” By why do they have to choose a party; Why not vote FOR THE PERSON? That’s what an informed voter does.

JAMES FILLMORE

Coeur d’Alene