Ranked Choice Voting Mitigates True Threats to Democracy

Recently, a Sun Sailor reader wrote in with several disingenuous claims regarding ranked choice voting (RCV), including that it is a danger to democracy. Not only are these claims false, but they obscure the true dangers that threaten to bring down our democratic system.

The true threats to democracy are minority rule, voter suppression, and hyperpartisanship — all of which RCV helps to mitigate by requiring majority winners, giving voters more choices, and incentivizing candidates to talk to more voters and earn second-choice votes from their opponents’ supporters.

In Minnesota cities that use RCV, we have seen increased voter turnout and historically diverse groups of people running for and winning office. Since adopting RCV, half of Bloomington’s city council includes people of color as well as more political diversity. In Minnetonka and Saint Paul, voters elected historic city councils made up entirely of women. In all the RCV cities, their city councils are more representative of their communities.

In the upcoming presidential election, Donald Trump could possibly once again be re-elected in a race where third-party candidates act as spoilers rather than viable alternatives. Instead of letting voters rank their favorite candidates, we allow a convoluted system that lets candidates win a plurality in a small number of swing states without any consideration of the true preferences to a majority of voters. This system has allowed candidates in four of the last eight presidential campaigns to win election without winning a majority of the popular vote — including two who didn’t even win a plurality in 2000 and 2016. Ranked choice voting is designed specifically to solve this problem and ensure a majority of people actually support the elected candidate.

So which is the true threat to democracy, ranked choice voting, or minority rule? In a time when our democratic system is coming under attack at every level across the country, I am proud to live in a state at the forefront of protecting and advancing the frontiers of democracy.