Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) is a simple upgrade to the way we vote.
I've been interested in it since I became a registered unaffiliated Independent voter. I hate political parties; they are one of the problems with our government. Elections are NOT about winning. Our government is supposed to represent EVERYONE, not just the majority.
Because we currently have majority wins voting and the Electoral College, we have already seen that despite a candidate winning the popular vote, a different candidate can win the election. I don't think that's a good thing.
How does it work?
Once all votes are in, counting the votes may be done in a series of rounds if there is not a clear majority winner in the first count.
Imagine there are 6 candidates for U.S. Senator: Republican, Democrat, Green Party, Libertarian, and 2 non-partisan Independents. Using the first letter of each:
R -- John
D -- Marsha
G -- Phyllis
L -- Tom
I-1 -- Henry
I-2 -- Phil
Each voter ranks the candidates in order of their personal preference.
Voter A: 1. Marsha, 2. Phyllis, 3. Henry, 4. Phil, 5. Tom, 6. John
Voter B: 1. John, 2. Tom, 3. Henry, 4. Marsha, 5. Phil, 6. Phyllis
Voter C: 1. Phyllis, 2. Marsha, 3. Henry, 4. Phil, 5. John, 6. Tom
Imagine there were 200 votes and these were the results in the 1st count: Nobody got a majority, 50% or 100 of the votes: John and Marsha each got 30% of the #1 votes or 60 votes each. Henry got 20% or 40 votes, Phyllis got 15% or 30 votes, Phil got 4% or 8 votes and Tom got 1% or 2 votes for a total of 100% of the 200 votes for their 1st choice.
Tom got the least votes of all the candidates; Tom is eliminated from the next count and his 2 votes are distributed to the candidate the voter selected as their 2nd choice; one going to John and one to Phil.
The votes are recounted. This ranks John with 61 votes, Marsha with 60 votes, Henry with 40 votes, Phyllis with 30 votes and Phil with 9 votes.
This recount eliminates Phil from the next count and his 9 votes are redistributed to the voters' next choice being: Marsha got 3 and now is at 63 votes, John got 3 and now has 64 votes, Henry got 2 and now has 42 votes and Phyllis got 1 and now has 31 votes. Phyllis is now eliminated and her votes are redistributed among the remaining candidates according to the voters' preferences; being: 11 to Marsha now having 74 votes, 10 to John now having 74 votes and 10 to Henry now having 52 votes.
Nobody yet has a majority of the votes: The next count might decide the winner. Henry is now eliminated from the count and his 52 votes are redistributed to the voters' next choice, being: John gets 27 of Henry's votes reaching 101 votes and Marsha gets 25 reaching 99 votes, meaning John wins the election.
I'm not entirely sure that my math is accurate in all this but this is the gist of how RCV works. If, on the first count somebody gets a majority, the election is over and there's a winner. Each count eliminates the candidate with the least votes and their votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates according to each voter's choices and a recount is done until one candidate reaches a majority.
It's possible for each voter to rank all the candidates or only those they like. It still means that there are 200 votes and some candidates get 0 votes at the beginning. It means that voters who only vote for a single party can still do so and it means that voters who are like more than one candidate can distribute their votes to give each of those candidates a chance to be elected.
RCV means that Independent candidates have a better chance of getting 2nd or 3rd place votes and winning elections, especially in local elections.
Candidates will fare better in elections if they become more concerned with ALL the voters rather than just those of their party.
There are variations to this scheme.
I didn't find the Wikipedia article very helpful in describing the counts but it does show the states that now have this methodology. I got the information for the counts from Voter Choice New Jersey.
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