Posted on 12/18/2022 9:43:29 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
Americans want honest, straightforward and fair elections that they can trust. Regardless of whether candidates win or lose, voters deserve far better than the incompetence, mismanagement and multi-week delays in counting votes that we’re seeing in so many states today. So, at a time when trust in elections is at an all-time low, why are some establishment Republicans teaming up with Democrats to push a complex, confusing and painfully slow method of voting in America?
Simply stated, supporters of ranked-choice voting (RCV) believe it will produce a new era of pastel campaigns and a greater public acceptance of final results that yield crops of spineless candidates who won’t challenge the failed status quo. But for the struggling forgotten men and women who are looking for new leaders and innovative solutions, RCV is just one more way for elitists to further tilt the system in their favor. (RELATED: DOWNING: Red Wave Washes Through Florida, Fades In The Heartland And Barely Reaches Alaska)
As conservative economist Thomas Sowell observed, “There are no solutions, there are only trade-offs.” And RCV’s trade-offs make clear that our traditional way of voting is far superior — just like the Founding Fathers designed it.
When Maine Congressman Bruce Poliquin lost his election in 2018 due to RCV he stated, “It is now officially clear I won the constitutional ‘one-person, one-vote’ first choice election on Election Day that has been used in Maine for more than one hundred years.” Poliquin’s legitimate frustration with RCV will be echoed by countless others if the practice is expanded into more states.
The obvious truth is that RCV is complicated, difficult to understand, and relies on a counting process shrouded in mystery. Just look at the recent news from Alaska. On Election Day, more Alaska voters opted for a Republican to represent them in the U.S. House.
Then two weeks later — following Alaska’s RCV protocols — a liberal Democrat was re-elected because the conservative vote was split between two candidates. How could a state that Donald Trump carried by 10 points send a left-wing Democrat to Congress? Along with ignoring the will of the people, RCV’s opaque and multifaceted counting process paves the way for more distrust in the system.
Look no further than Alaska’s Senate race, where incumbent RINO Lisa Murkowski was re-elected using RCV with the support of liberals who voted for her instead of backing a viable Democrat. Now, instead of having another conservative voice in the Senate, Alaskans get six more years of Murkowski, who will spend her term pandering to the Democrats who propelled her to victory.
While it sounds like a viral pathogen cooked up in a lab, RCV may be worse. It’s a type of voting that essentially prohibits American voters from making one choice and instead requires or encourages them to rank multiple candidates for the same office in order of preference.
After the ballots in a RCV election have been counted, if a candidate has received a majority of votes, then he or she wins. However, if no one gets a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest first-choice ballots is removed, and that candidate’s ballots are counted for their second-choice candidates.
This process is then repeated — with more opportunities for mistakes or worse — until eventually a candidate receives a majority of the votes.
No wonder leaders on both sides of the political spectrum have raised concerns about RCV. According to Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, “People are starting to look nationally and say RCV ‘could be the answer.’ I think they need to be cautious about that. It’s very confusing.”
He continued, “Ninety-five percent of the people talking to me about our new ranked-choice voting system were saying how utterly confusing it was.” Senior NAACP official Hazel Dukes also castigated RCV, “It is voter suppression … I hope that the courts see that ranked choice voting is not right for democracy.”
Despite these concerns, 11 states already use RCV in some capacity for local elections and its spreading. The critical battleground state of Georgia may consider a RCV system in the future.
Hawaii and Nevada have moved RCV measures for use in future elections. In Utah, 23 cities and towns opted into a pilot program to use RCV for local elections.
Thankfully, under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has taken a stand in defense of the Constitution and prohibited RCV. More states should follow suit.
Even in the best of circumstances, RCV runs the risk of disenfranchising voters. If a voter’s chosen candidates have been eliminated in the RCV process, these voters won’t have any say in the final vote. By its very design, RCV slows down the process of counting the votes and introduces an array of ambiguities into what should be a simple process of determining a clear winner.
RCV requires voters to place absolute trust in the vote-counters that they tabulate accurately everything in an uncertain process. And as we’ve seen yet again from paper shortages in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania to machine malfunctions in Maricopa County, Arizona, things go awry even in the best circumstances.
So let’s defend the integrity of our elections, not undermine them through dangerous so-called reforms like RCV.
"""Despite these concerns, 11 states already use RCV in some capacity for local elections and its spreading. The critical battleground state of Georgia may consider a RCV system in the future."""
It gives the Democrats two votes. First they get to vote for their own candidate who they prefer, then they get to vote for a Republican they actually oppose, but who they think will hurt the Republican cause the most. It’s complete trash for a Republican to push this. In Alaska it was created by the republican party.
Mitch McConnell and Karl Rove protect the Establishment from the grassroots. Every Republican who voted for Mitch needs to be named. When a Senator appears on your local radio station, call or email the host and tell them to ask the senator if they voted for Mitch or not.
Couldn't Republicans do the same?
The RINO’s have fully taken over Georgia and are pushing for ranked-choice voting in order to make sure conservatives do not have a chance of pushing them out in the future.
At this point, I’m undecided as to whether or not Stacy Abrams would have been a better choice for governor in 2016. At least with Abrams as governor, maybe the GOP would push back a bit. With Kemp, they just rubber-stamp whatever he and his crew ask for in Atlanta. Some say RCV will never pass in Georgia. I wouldn’t be so sure about that. They have a tendency to get what they want in the Gold Dome. Most of the times to the detriment of the remainder of the State.
To me it fundamentally goes against the idea of “one man\woman one vote”!
It dilutes your vote. It’s a back handed way to artificially give power to the middle choice at the expense of the others.
we no longer have political parties but they have evolved into racketeering syndicates. Merely factions of a control mob struggling for power to extort and steal money through "foreign aid" (places like Ukraine), NGO's and "consulting firms". It goes on at the local level as well
If a politician cared about the "subjects" outside the castle walls then they would not be where they are, they would NOT be a "politician"( syndicate mobster )
case in point: look what they did to Trump
people need to stop thinking Republican politicians are on their side.
RCV is nothing but a con. It should be outlawed.
It will destroy the voting system. which many of us have already justifiably lost faith in.
In addition to the obvious flaws outlined in the article, RCV also enables all forms of cheating, because the results of the first round conveniently provides would-be-cheaters with the exact number of ballots they need to manufacture for the next round.
The elites in the US are trying to establish their long sought Socialist States of America ... with them in charge of course.
Another way to steal
But they are bold enough to push for it and implement it till it’s a fait accompli and cannot realistically be dislodged.
I trust in God alone to check that kind of aggression.
It makes it impossible for a MAGA candidate to win a statewide office. This is why RINOs like Raffensperger and Murkowski and the Turtle want it.
“Couldn’t Republicans do the same? “
The GOPee is not known as the Stupid Party for no reason...
“It makes it impossible for a MAGA candidate to win a statewide office. This is why RINOs like Raffensperger and Murkowski and the Turtle want it. “
Just think how the US Revolution would have gone with RCV...
one man one vote... and this ain’t it
The rat bastards are pushing for a constitutional amendment to implement this in NV.
It is my understanding that the ballot is tossed if the voter does not rank others below his first choice.
If so, it is clearly unconstitutional to make one’s first choice contingent on voting for candidates one may despise.
So are RCV-enabled voting machines, early voting, mail-in voting, ballot harvesting in all its forms...
Deep State has a number of tools at its disposal.
Here’s another one: Folks ought to check out who their voting machine inspectors are.
Hint, hint...
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