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Editorial: The Primaries Are Just Dumb: There's a Better Way to Do Democracy
By Editorial Board
Single-winner elections do a poor job of winnowing a large field of candidates down to one who reflects majority agreement, and encourage the type of nastiness we’re seeing now, because it’s all-or-nothing for each candidate. And the winner of this process can be the choice of as little as 25 or 30 percent of the electorate, which is another way of saying that he or she was not the choice of up to three-quarters of voters … There is a straightforward and elegant solution: ranked-choice voting, also known as instant-runoff voting. Already in use all over the world and in cities and towns across the United States, it’s a popular and proven way of electing leaders who are — what a radical notion! — actually supported by most voters. It is effective in any multicandidate race, but it’s ideal for making sense of a large and fractured pool of candidates.
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Opinion: The Presidential Nominating Process Is Absurd
By David Leonhardt
We have an unnecessarily weak presidential field … [In addition to other reforms], more states should adopt ranked-choice voting, allowing voters to list their second and third choices … Ranked choice can prevent the Trump phenomenon during the 2016 Republican primaries. Trump may have solid Republican support today, but he didn’t back then. Even though most Republican voters opposed him, his dedicated base let him emerge from a large field.
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Editorial: New Yorkers Have a Chance to Remake How They Vote
By Editorial Board
New Yorkers like to think of their city as a place of bold, progressive innovation, but when it comes to the democratic process, New York is too often stuck in the dark ages. Ranked-choice voting is a smart, tested reform that would make certain that New Yorkers elect candidates who have the support of a majority of voters. Isn’t that how democracy is supposed to work?
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Maine Voters Will Rank Their Top Presidential Candidates in 2020
By Maggie Astor
It was the first state to adopt ranked-choice voting for congressional elections, and it will now be the first to adopt it for presidential elections. Maine has moved ahead with plans to become the first state to allow voters to rank candidates in a general presidential election in 2020.