Ranked Choice is very attractive to people who don’t realize that it marginalizes third parties even more than a simple plurality election.
Here’s the thing, if your third party is small and has no chance of actually winning, then Ranked Choice will keep them from ruining the election for the two major parties.
The thing is, the second that third party becomes even slightly more popular than the major party closest to them on the spectrum, the candidate furthest from them on the spectrum wins.
See, if A B and C are in an election where A has 40%, B has 29% and C (the new third party) has 31%. When B is eliminated, it doesn’t matter that Every single C voter put B as their second, because B is gone.
All it takes is for a third of B voters (10% of the total) to put A first for A to win. This is the absolute worst outcome for C voters, and if just a handful had voted dishonestly for B first, B would have won.
This is a high bar to hit when there are only three candidates, but when there are five? Well, the numbers get worse. More than that, and RCV just starts breaking in new and interesting ways.
Ranked Choice is a broken system pretending to be a viable one. In my top comment, I pointed to a bunch of real world examples of it breaking down in ways that no other voting system is subject to.
If say, your goal is elevating third parties, ranked choice is very attractive, as 3p voters can do so without “throwing away” their vote.
Not refuting your concerns, just saying folks are drawn to systems for particular reasons.
Ranked Choice is very attractive to people who don’t realize that it marginalizes third parties even more than a simple plurality election.
Here’s the thing, if your third party is small and has no chance of actually winning, then Ranked Choice will keep them from ruining the election for the two major parties.
The thing is, the second that third party becomes even slightly more popular than the major party closest to them on the spectrum, the candidate furthest from them on the spectrum wins.
See, if A B and C are in an election where A has 40%, B has 29% and C (the new third party) has 31%. When B is eliminated, it doesn’t matter that Every single C voter put B as their second, because B is gone.
All it takes is for a third of B voters (10% of the total) to put A first for A to win. This is the absolute worst outcome for C voters, and if just a handful had voted dishonestly for B first, B would have won.
This is a high bar to hit when there are only three candidates, but when there are five? Well, the numbers get worse. More than that, and RCV just starts breaking in new and interesting ways.
Ranked Choice is a broken system pretending to be a viable one. In my top comment, I pointed to a bunch of real world examples of it breaking down in ways that no other voting system is subject to.