ELECTIONS: Ranked choice is the right choice
In the Jan. 23 issue of The Press, T. Hoffman raises an interesting and valid point about elections in which no candidate wins the popular vote. He suggests a runoff election between the two highest vote getters, and there is nothing wrong with that in principle. However, such a process does require a subsequent election to be held.
There is another way: Ranked Choice Voting, which is used in Alaska. The basic idea is that instead of voting for a single candidate, you vote for a ranked list. If no candidate wins the popular vote, then the candidate with the fewest votes is discarded and removed from *all* voter preferences, and each list “shuffled up.” This process is repeated until some candidate receives a majority of the popular vote. Although Ranked Choice can’t be described as perfect, it does eliminate the possible need for runoff elections.
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