chaogomu, 1 year ago

Ranked choice is probably the worst option for a poll like this...

I'm betting if you ran this exact poll under different rules, say multiple choice allowing unlimited selection, you'd get a vastly different answer.

This is because Ranked Choice is a horrible voting system. If First Past the Post wasn't so bad, RCV would have the title of worst system ever created.

Hell, the site you linked even has a "pros and cons" section where they even admit to the massive problems with the system but then hand wave them away.

Ballot exhaustion alone is a showstopper. They pretend that the voter "just didn't choose someone popular enough to win" when the reality is much more insidious. The most common form of ballot exhaustion is when your 2nd or 3rd choice is eliminated in the first round, and then your 1st choice is eliminated in a later round.

And because of how votes are counted, if you had put your 2nd choice in the 1st slot, they could have won the election, even if they were not your literal favorite.

Up to 20% of ballots cast in RCV elections are thrown out due to ballot exhaustion. That's enough votes to massively shift who wins or loses.

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The basic truth here is that RCV is good at one thing. Preventing fringe candidates from spoiling an election between two front-runners. It can prevent another Bush v Gore, but that's it.

Also, in real world use, it's fucked up several elections.

Due to the need for centralized counting, the 2021 NYC mayoral race had 130,000 extra votes that turned out to have been test ballots that should never have been in the same location as the actual election ballots.

https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/6/29/22556830/nyc-board-of-election-pulls-preliminary-mayoral-results

Centralize counting and an overly complex system also resulted in the wrong winner being chosen in California. The wrong winner was sworn in and served in the position for a full month before the error was found.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Alameda-County-admits-tallying-error-in-17682520.php

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There are vastly better options than RCV.

You can read up on them here. https://www.starvoting.org/

And here, https://electionscience.org/