{"id":22864,"date":"2016-07-05T12:53:28","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T19:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=22864"},"modified":"2016-07-05T12:53:28","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T19:53:28","slug":"plurality-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/05\/plurality-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Plurality Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The problem with the US electoral system is that plurality rules.  Let me illuistrate that with a generalized example.  Say that Hillary Clinton gets 33% of the vote, Bernie Sanders gets 23%, Jill Stein gets 10%, and Rump Dump Trump gets the rest, 34%.  Although almost twice as many Americans vote for a lefty, the extreme right Fascist wins, because he has the plurality.  However ranked choice (instant runoff) voting would br fair, because it ends with a majority, not just a plurality.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"0705FV-Logo\"<\/p>\n

.Dissatisfaction with voting choices, though, may have opened a window for serious debate about an alternative voting system. In an interview with Green Party candidate Jill Stein for Redacted Tonight VIP, Lee Camp asked Stein how voters could justify "wasting\u201d a vote on her.<\/a> Stein said the answer was simple: change the system from winner take all to ranked choice voting.<\/p>\n

As FairVote.org explains, ranked choice voting makes democracy more fair and functional.<\/a> In ranked choice voting, alternatively known as instant-runoff voting, voters rank their votes. If your first choice does not win, then your vote goes to your second choice, and so on. So, under ranked voting, you could vote Stein first, then Clinton. That would guarantee that a vote for Stein could not actually help Trump. It would also guarantee that we could get a fair and accurate assessment of how many people really picked Clinton or Trump as their first choice. If it seems complicated, check out a sample ballot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ranked choice voting is used in local elections throughout the country. It is also used in national elections in Ireland and New Zealand. It has a history of making elections more open and fair. Even more importantly, it encourages candidates to cultivate a broad, moderate base of support rather than intense, zealous supporters.<\/a>,,,<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From <Alternet<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

With this system, my first choice would be Bernie Sanders.  My second would be Jill Stein.  My third would be Hillary Clinton.  However, under our present system, assuming Hillary is the Democratic  nominee, a vote for Bernie or Jill helps only Trump.<\/font><\/p>\n

Perhaps changing the system is how we need to direct our efforts instead of trying to elect people with no chance to win because they are write-in candidates or third party candidates.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The problem with the US electoral system is that plurality rules.  Let me illuistrate that with a generalized example.  Say that Hillary Clinton gets 33% of the vote, Bernie Sanders gets 23%, Jill Stein gets 10%, and Rump Dump Trump gets the rest, 34%.  Although almost twice as many Americans vote for a lefty, the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}