(my previous go-to video was by the inimitable CGP Grey, and it's still great if you want more details about the mechanics of STV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI)
@woody open list is pretty good too. But for me STV is still best because it doesn't even require parties to exist. You can still get PR that matches the electorate's perspectives, factions, vibes, etc, which might might be cross-cutting across parties in other cases.
The downside to STV that open list doesn't have is that there's a practical limit on the size of districts and number of candidates before the ranked ballot gets too complicated.
Yesterday the Fair Representation Act was re-introduced in Congress! This reform will stop gerrymandering and make the House of Representatives more competitive and more responsive to voters.
@alan I would rather we go back to something closer the representation proportions of 1920 of about 200,000 per representative and that would give my valley 4 not 1. Instead of this which would roll us into a much more conservative area and give us one rep.
Though the current number in the house is capped by law.
@InkySchwartz What valley are you in? This proposal would roll you up with some adjacent areas and give you more than one rep.
Simply increasing the number of reps but maintaining single-member districts is underwhelming. Just look at the smaller districts in state legislatures and you can see that they're just as easily gerrymandered, just as often stuck with unresponsive incumbents who can't be defeated, and still completely locks out third parties. A bigger house solves basically nothing.
I love how low-key awesome Portland, Maine is at explaining #RCV.
In the end, if you want to pop the hood you can. But that line is all most people need to know.
In Arizona, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Nevada initiatives are afoot to institute ✅ non-partisan primary elections, some involving ranked choice voting
Whereas Ohio Republicans are seeking to ❌ close their state's primaries
With U.S. democracy plagued by extremism, polarization, and a growing disconnect between voters and lawmakers, a set of reforms that could dramatically upend how Americans vote is gaining momentum at surprising speed in Western states.
🔸Ranked choice voting🔸, which asks voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference, has seen its profile steadily expand since 2016, when Maine became the first state to adopt it.
But increasingly, #RCV is being paired with a new system for primaries known as 🔸Final Five 🔸— or in some cases, Final Four — that advances multiple candidates, regardless of party, to the general election.
Alaska, the only state currently using "RCV-plus-Final Four or Final-Five", appears to be seeing some benefits to its political culture already:
After years of partisan rancor, both legislative chambers are now controlled by bipartisan majorities eager to find common ground and respond to the needs of voters, say lawmakers in the state who have embraced the new system.
A slew of other states could soon follow in Alaska’s footsteps. Last year, #Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment that would create an RCV-plus-Final-Five system — for the measure to take effect, voters must approve it again next year.
Efforts also are underway to get RCV-plus-Final-Five on #Arizona’s 2024 ballot, and RCV-plus-Final-Four in #Colorado and #Idaho — where organizers announced Wednesday that they’ve gathered 50,000 signatures (they need around 63,000 to qualify).
Even #Wisconsin Republicans, who in the redistricting sphere have fought reform efforts tooth and nail, in December held a hearing for bipartisan legislation that would create RCV-plus-Final-Five, though its prospects appear dim.
Meanwhile, #Oregon voters will decide next year whether to adopt RCV alone.
And this year, #Minnesota and #Illinois lawmakers passed bills to study RCV, while #Connecticut approved a measure that allows local governments to use it.
There are even flickers of interest at the #national level.
In December alone, two leading Washington, D.C. think tanks that often find themselves on opposite sides — the conservative 🔹American Enterprise Institute 🔹and the liberal 🔹Center for American Progress 🔹— each held separate panel discussions that considered RCV-plus-Final-Four/Five.
👉 Katherine Gehl, the founder of the 🔹Institute for Political Innovation, 🔹and the designer of the Final Four/Five system, calls RCV-plus-Final-Five “transformational.” (Her organization now says advancing five candidates to the general works best, by giving voters more choices.)
“There’s a huge pressure on reformers to say, this is not a silver bullet,” said Gehl. “And OK, I get that.”
But, she added, “I think it’s as close to a silver bullet as you can come.”
Click through to start the video at 1:13:00 or so (to skip right to the RCV problems).
I'm now a fan of #STAR#voting. The part where Alameda County screwed up their #RCV counts and actually seated the wrong candidate, discovering their fuck up a month later is just.. wow.
@Andres4NY Good to see discussion about this, but it’s just not true that there’s anything inherent in #RankedChoiceVoting that requires a single point of failure or that causes delays in counting votes. Jurisdictions have been holding back second- and third- (etc.) place votes just to make things appear simpler. But there is a limited number of permutations of ballots in any #RCV election, and computers are perfectly capable of recording and reporting on each.
Great that #Oregon voters will have an opportunity to adopt #RankedChoiceVoting for local and statewide primary and general elections in 2024. One thing I'm afraid they're overlooking: The Presidential electors chosen by #RCV need to be freed up to vote for their assigned candidate OR a different candidate, perhaps one chosen by their assigned candidate. Otherwise OR voters would fear that voting for a third-party candidate would deprive their preferred major-party candidate of electoral votes.
I'm a huge fan of #RankedChoiceVoting . Apparently, it's going to be on the ballot in Oregon in November 2024, and will apply to all statewide and federal elections including primaries. It's a huge boost for democracy, as it allows people to move past the party duopoly of Dem/GOP and vote for 3rd party candidates without fear of giving the election away to the greater of 2 evils.
Fun fact, I helped with the campaign to get #RCV passed in Benton County, Oregon in 2016.
I like what they do in Alaska. the primary of every race is totally open, you just vote for your favorite candidate. Then the general is RCV among the top five vote getters in the primary.
The (paper) voter guide only lists my city council candidates. It does not list civil court judges or anyone else who might be on the ballot. You have to know to go to NYC DOE's website, go to "find my pollsite/view sample ballot" so see who's actually on the ballot.
You've gotta do this in advance of going to your poll site, and then (w/ #RCV) memorize the order you want to vote for candidates in.
@Andres4NY@meelar at least it's just a question of throwing your vote away, not left wondering at which stage of the RCV "IRV shell game of a counting method" it gets thrown away for you.