:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/adn/KQFURYCQPJHYPDF4D23OA7HAQ4.jpg)
Posted on 08/27/2022 4:54:05 AM PDT by george76
Well, you can't say we didn't warn you, Alaska.
As of this writing, voters already know the outcomes of all the special elections and primary elections in New York and Florida that took place Aug. 23. But nobody has any idea who won Alaska's special House election held a week prior. In fact, the outcome won't be known until next month.
Why?
Because Alaska went and adopted the idiotic, needlessly complicated ranked choice voting system in a 2020 referendum that just barely passed. Voters might want to consider a do-over and rank "no" first on their ballots this time, except that wouldn't guarantee that it would lose.
Based on past experience with this system, it takes weeks to sort out even the simplest election result. This is already happening with the three-way race in the state's special election. It is only slight hyperbole to say that the outcome of this special election race will be determined with barely any time for the winner to be sworn in since it's up again in the November election. Meanwhile, state election officials and the media are trying to gaslight Alaskans, telling them that this is a good thing.
Ranked choice voting has been tried in enough cities and states by now that it's safe to say it is a silly system that no one should bother with. It causes voters who actually show up and bother to vote to be disenfranchised at alarming rates, mostly just because the system is so confusing and counterintuitive. It's much easier for voters to choose one candidate than to rank multiple candidates, and as a result, many of them stop ranking after one or two. As a result, nearly 9% of all ballots cast in San Francisco's 2018 mayor's race were thrown out before the final count — you know, the one that actually counts. In New York City's 2021 Democratic mayoral primary, 140,000 out of the 940,000 votes cast were discarded before the final round.
Speaking of which, here's a head-scratcher about that contest. Voters were asked who their top choice was. The third-place finisher on that question ended up knocking out the second-place finisher at some point in the interminable, incomprehensible counting process. She then came within 7,200 votes of defeating the first-place finisher as New York Democrats' favored nominee. This is what ranked choice voting is really about — someone's third- or fourth-best choice ends up winning, and nobody understands how.
This is just one example of all the latent absurdities that ranked choice voting creates. As for its alleged benefits, it only marginally increased turnout in New York's Democratic primary since the last time there was a meaningful and competitive Democratic primary — in 2015. The increase nearly vanishes if you don't count the votes that got thrown out.
If voters are really unhappy with the traditional first-past-the-post system, they should adopt runoff elections. There are several versions much easier for voters to understand than ranked choice voting and that produce rational results in a reasonable amount of time.
Massachusetts voters may not know much, but they wisely rejected ranked choice voting in 2020. Alaskans and Mainers should follow suit and throw out this dumb system the next chance they get.
The purpose of rank choice voting is for those in power to remain in power.
So, Alaska doesn’t have software? This could be run and done in a day.
Without rank choice the democrat would win. Now it’s possible the republican can win.
Ranked choice = the Lisa Murkowski Preservation Act
Palin needs to sue and get a ruling that ranked choice voting violates the 1 man 1 vote principle and is unconstitutional
This is wrong because the 2 repubs would have faced off in a primary before a general election instead of having an insane ranked choice jungle primary
Ranked choice voting is stupid. I go to the polls knowing the candidate I want. It’s rare that I have a second best choice. Unlike most voters, I spend time researching and often speaking with candidates.
Most will just rank names on a list.
It’s moronic.
Johnny Rocco style
https://youtu.be/ggJNrDf6S_4
That’s the whole idea hear...the longer they fiddle the ballets....the easier it is to mess with them. Rank choice is a process intended to interfere with “Election Day” resulting
Only way for Murski to stay in power.
That will show up like this on the next ballot:
(You MUST choose all of them, in your order of preference, or your ballot will be discarded.)
__ 1. Keep ranked choice voting
__ 2. Remove ranked choice voting, in favor of the Democrat Party choosing on every election item
__ 3. Remove ranked choice voting, in favor of using a roll of the dice, performed in private by the Democrat Party
__ 4. Remove ranked choice voting, returning to the prior solitary choice voting system.
It would be much better if they did the runoff. If one doesn’t get 50.1%, the top two face each other. That makes sense. This doesn’t.
Doesn’t bode well for states who want to do away with same day voting on paper ballots.
I live in Maine and what is not clear to me is whether you can indicate only one choice and have it applied to each digital runoff. I have started voting 5 times on my ballot with my one choice so that my intent is clear.
Ranked choice voting is stupid.
The R vote splits again.
And don’t for a second think that was not the plan of the GOP.
These schemes should be invalidated. It is up to parties to pick their nominees by whatever rules they choose, else allow independents by whatever terms the law allows. The government then puts them on the ballot, vote once! It is stupid pooling this, doing rank choice schemes, etc., which are simply meant to undo the clear will of the people.
Ranked choice voting is stupid, because it assumes that everyone has perfect knowledge of how they evaluate the candidates, and how they would vote in succeeding rounds.
That is hardly true... most people barely know the candidates for many offices aside from a few sound bite ads (positive and negative) and their party affiliation.
In a runoff, people get to think about it at least a little.
And, either way, it takes time.
Uncertainty in voter preferences, as well as uncertainties in the vote counting process, make ranked preference voting an unholy mess.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.