An Update on Ranked Choice Voting in Washington State

The Provocateur ^ | 09/07/2009 | Mike Volpe

[fiscon1]

About a month ago, I did a story about a voting battle being played out in Pierce County in Washington state. Back in 2006, Pierce County put on its ballot an initiative to change its voting system to ranked choice voting.

RCV) is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winnerelections, in which voters rank candidates in an order of preference. If no candidate is the first preference of a majority of voters, the candidate with the fewest number of first preference rankings is eliminated and that candidate's ballots are redistributed at full value to the remaining candidates according to the next ranking on each ballot. This process is repeated until one candidate obtains a majority of votes among candidates not eliminated. The term "instant runoff" is used because the method is said to simulate a series of runoff elections tallied in rounds, as in an exhaustive ballot election.[1]

[GeronL]

I don’t really think I like this idea

[hinckley buzzard]

Social psychologists have been toying with these alternate voting systems for decades. This one is an old favorite of the academics, although they never seem to implement it in their faculty meetings when they have the chance.

None of them ever produce a reliable and measurable advantage over the tried and true system of one man one vote.

[arthurus]

I think some of the European countries use this.

[GeronL]

It sounds like it would work on the face of it but when you think deeply, which academics can’t so, it doesn’t seem like it would be right.

[nascarnation]

It would be a problem for the Baraqqis who are challenged to do more than push the big “D” button.......

[GeronL]

Their second choice is the Socialist Party then the People’s Revolutionary Party.... etc

[JoeFromSidney]

A simpler system is "approval voting." You can vote for as many candidates for a specific office as you approve of. Obviously, if you vote for all of them, your vote cancels out. However, the big advantage is that you can vote for both a candidate whom you barely approve of, but who is popular, and also vote for a candidate you really approve of, but who would likely garner few vote in a "one office, one vote" system. It eliminates the problem of voting for someone you can barely stomach because the one you really want "can't win."

Several professional societies use this method, and it seems to work well. It's much easier to score than ay ranked voting system.