Testimonials
Using ranked-choice voting in party-run nomination contests in Virginia has dramatically improved the precision and quality of Republican campaigns…. Early on, Republicans noted a decidedly positive change in the tenor and tone of our statewide campaigns, culminating in Glenn Youngkin’s astonishing success last November.
I think you end up with a better, more electable candidate from [preferential voting], and a more unified party.
Up until a year ago, I was an opponent of ranked-choice voting, because all I was doing was looking at the academic literature. I didn’t take the time to look at what was actually happening where ranked-choice voting had been deployed. Between that and seeing what happened in our primaries, I became a believer.
[Preferential primaries] “help our candidates win… When a primary yields a majority winner, that means more voters are bought in and likely to turn out for that candidate in the general election.”
We could, and should, move to a better system. A tweak of the runoff system that would cost less dollars, end elections faster, end the negativity… and actually produce a majoritarian winner: Instant Runoff Voting or IRV.
You go and order a beer. Sometimes that beer is going to be out, you have a backup in mind. So this ranking is not something that we don’t do as human beings. We do it every day and it’s easy.
I like ranked choice voting. I think it’s a good way. We’ve done it with some of our conventions on the Republican side of the ledger. I think ranked voting can work.