Future candidates would be forced by the math to moderate their positions toward compromises in order to avoid the wrath of our thumbs-down votes.

Just wow!

There is a new voting system that is sweeping the nation, but don’t be fooled. The term “Ranked Choice Voting” is itself just a marketing term for Instant Runoff Voting (IRV).

The irony is that Independents, who don’t understand Ranked Choice Voting, advocate Ranked Choice Voting, which is designed to eliminate…Independent candidates!

Plurality Voting (meaning whichever candidate gets the most votes wins) is flawed if ever there are more than two candidates. A third (or 4th, 5th) candidate spoils the election. Think Ross Perot, for example.

Ranked Choice Voting allows Independents to vote for Ross Perot, for example, as their first choice but also asks them for a backup (2nd choice). It’s sort of like asking teenagers for their list of dream cars, “but choose from these two clunkers just in case,” because those are the real choices.

After Perot – in this hypothetical election – gets eliminated in the first round, the next round in an instant runoff would be between just two candidates. It becomes a pure two-person race without the spoiler effect.

Additionally, each incremental Independent candidate will basically ensure that none of them will prevail, because in each round, they have to split the votes of Independent voters.

Lastly, according to the Center for Election Science, Ranked Choice Voting is also proven to increase ballot spoilage rates by more than 7 times the normal plurality voting rate.

So Ranked Choice Voting is great if you’re trying to quell the groundswell of Independent, middle-minded voters and cement the two-party monopoly. But that’s not what 80% of Americans want! They want to break the two-party monopoly.

Please don’t advocate for Ranked Choice Voting if you are an Independent voter.