There are many different approaches to ranked-choice voting, and experimentation will determine which is best. But even with the small sample we have, we can judge that the incentives seem better. Among the three GOP senators who voted to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, only one is up for reelection in 2022—Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Brown’s politics may not be Murkowski’s, but Jackson is clearly qualified and it’s good to uphold the tradition that the president should get his pick barring some scandal or malfeasance. Murkowski could uphold this norm and not fear a Trumpist primary challenger because Alaska now holds an open primary in which anyone from any party can participate. The four candidates who win the most votes go on to the general election. Voters rank their choices. If one candidate gets over 50 percent, he or she is the winner. If not, the bottom polling candidate is dropped and the second choices on ballots are distributed and so on until someone has a majority.
Not only does the ranked-choice system disempower party extremists, it also discourages candidates from savage personal attacks, the persistence of which arguably keeps some fine people out of politics altogether. Candidates are less likely to attack one another if they hope to be the second choice of the other person’s voters.
The two-party system has not proven to be a solid foundation for democracy. Time to disarm the crazies.
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