Posted on 08/01/2022 6:18:08 AM PDT by cotton1706
Advocates of ranked-choice voting say it elevates centrist candidates, keeps campaigns positive, and promotes debate of important issues. That isn’t how it’s going in Alaska. The Last Frontier is in the middle of an experiment that has confused voters, popularized fringe candidates and could lead to unrepresentative outcomes…
The whole business has sown confusion. Alaskans remain unclear how ranked-choice voting works despite millions spent on education efforts by state agencies and progressive cheerleaders like Alaskans for Better Elections. Official Division of Elections resources instruct voters to “rank as many or as few candidates as you like,” but ballots without second, third or fourth-place preferences won’t count if the first choice is eliminated, creating the possibility that candidates with less real support will triumph. Those who vote the way they’ve always done—selecting only one candidate—will be at a disadvantage.
Even the liberals at Alaska Public Media recognize that ranked-choice voting poses “difficult questions,” including “who would be the least bad” alternative to a voter’s first choice. The prospect of gaming out a “least bad” strategy will dissuade some citizens from voting at all—such as my father, who threw away his primary ballot after voting in every election for decades.
Montalbano focuses most of her completely valid criticism on the confusion being sown in the primary process. She also notes that voters are being effectively blackmailed into casting votes for candidates they may not approve of or agree with out of fear of having their ballots completely erased from the election results. (That’s what will happen to voters who decline to select any second-choice candidates if nobody gets 50% in the first round and their candidate is eliminated.)
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
But if Lisa Murkowski is returned to the US Senate, it'll be mission accomplished for the Ruling Oligarchy.
this and jungle primaries are two schemes I detest by the leftists.
Rnked choice makes some sense with certain statistics. It is absolutely foolish and stupid for voting. I choose my candidate and completely discount those I didn’t choose.
Plus that, most voters aren’t dedicated enough to research all candidates, making secondary votes useless and just names on a ballot.
Pretty simple....Dems by the sh** load will vote for Murkowski
It has been a disaster in New Zealand and Australia.
Agreed. The jungle primary works as designed here in CA: Republicans don’t appear on the general election ballot for statewide office… just your choice of the top two rats. This year is an exception, because of their disastrous rule of the nation. If memory serves, a Republican will appear on the ballot for all statewide offices except one. They’ll get crushed by the rats, of course, but they are going to be on the ballot.
>> She also notes that voters are being effectively blackmailed into casting votes for candidates they may not approve of or agree with out of fear of having their ballots completely erased from the election results. <<
“Centrists” usually mean the most corrupt, media-backed candidates: every bit as leftist as Bernie Sanders, but bought and paid for by China, Inc.
But either Alaska completely hijacked the notion of “ranked choice,” or this is completely backwards. The ENTIRE NOTION of ranked choice is to say, “Your first choice didn’t win? That’s OK, we still want to hear from you. Who’s your SECOND choice?”
The way it promotes “fringe” candidates (which the article complains about) is that people don’t need to worry about throwing away their vote on someone not likely to win. I WOULD argue that it’s a little weird using ranked choice in a primary, since the ranked choice is intended to make primaries unnecessary.
Done right, it SHOULD help defeat Murkowski. Incumbents and front-runners are often protected by dissatisfied constituents splitting their vote among several challengers. I believe McCain and Romney both had more populist-sounding friends (Fred Thompson, Ron Paul, etc.) pull votes away from ledd RINO candidates. With ranked choice, you LITERALLY can vote for Anybody But Romney.
I like allowing a party to choose their own candidate in a closed primary then having head to heads for the general for all legitimate parties. A party can be deemed legitimate if they acquire enough general election votes for their candidate in the prior election. Perhaps 10% to qualify for the ballot.
“It is absolutely foolish and stupid for voting.”
In my last election in Minneapolis (before I moved out to the far ‘burbs), we had our first race for mayor and City Council.
I voted for the ONE candidate I felt was best qualified and turned my ballot in.
RCV is a giant pile of you know what. How do we know that it’s a bad idea? The only people who ever seem to support it are Democrats. There’s no Republican support for it. That alone makes it a bad idea.
Trudeau wanted this type of voting for Canada but was scared off
“But if Lisa Murkowski is returned to the US Senate”
I live here and there are virtually no signs in front yards with her name on it. I live in “The Valley” north of “Los Anchorage” so that may be the reason. Anchorage is NOT Alaska but you can see it from there.
“ It has been a disaster in New Zealand and Australia.’
But it worked out just fine for the progressive idiots who were elected.
What do you think will happen?
Do you think Palin will be elected in two weeks?
Four the US Senate race, four will be selected. Which position do you think Murkowski will get (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th)? Ideally, she’ll be dropped altogether but I’m hoping for 3rd or 4th.
Can somebody tell me why a state like Alaska adopted this mess?
If you find yourself standing with the leftists... might want to rethink things.
Translation: "elevates centrist candidates" means that Democrats can dilute the vote for a conservative candidate and you end up with a RINO.
RINOs LOVE open primaries and ranked-choice voting. This is how they stay in power. (Just ask Rat-booger from GA).
What's the answer to it?
Get behind one real conservative candidate, and stop splitting the vote with other fake conservatives running with the sole purpose of defeating the real conservative.
Ranked Choice voting is a disaster every year in Maine. Loved by Liberals.
NYC now has RCV for its mayoral elections.
Handy, that.
Cause Murky would go the way Liz Cheney is fixing to go if there was a republican primary.
“Can somebody tell me why a state like Alaska adopted this mess?”
One reason: to protect Lisa Murkowski
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