.webp)
A fundamental precept of American democracy is that you need 50 percent plus one vote to pass bills to become law and to elect our representatives at the various levels of government. It’s also said that American states also serve as the laboratories of democracy, so there are many ways to run elections.
Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is already used in several states, notably Maine and Alaska. Six other states use it only for military and overseas ballots. RCV may seem like an overcomplication of our current voting process, but it does a superior job of capturing voters’ preferences in an intuitive way.
RCV allows voters to order their preference of candidates from best to least. This way, voters can vote for the candidate most aligned with their policy preferences. Then, they can strategically choose who may be a suitable replacement, a decent replacement, and then their least preferred candidate.
Suppose in a three-way race using RCV, no one reaches a majority of 50 percent plus one vote. Beyoncé has 45 percent, Olivia Rodrigo has 13 percent, and Taylor Swift has 42 percent. In this case, all of the second-choice votes from Olivia Rodrigo will be reallocated to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to determine who is the Queen of Pop Music.
Now, let’s examine how our current voting system would deal with the three-way Queen of Pop Music race.
Some states would allow Beyoncé to claim the title outright, even though most voters voted for someone else. Other states would say nice things about Olivia Rodrigo while holding a second election weeks later to determine a result between Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. This second election may have a lower turnout, meaning only the most die-hard fans are participating and skewing the reality of the total population of eligible voters.
