Mayoral race doesn’t have to be negative

Ranked choice voting could lead to more civil discourse during races

The degree to which negative campaigning tactics have taken hold in the Albuquerque mayoral election is nothing short of appalling. Starting in mid-September, a number of disturbing ads began airing on local television, and popping up on billboards around the city. The negative attacks have been toxic to the campaigns, to voters, and in a deeper sense, to our democracy. It’s easy to imagine what’s in store between now and the Nov. 14 election.

We saw this clearly during the mayoral debate of Oct. 15 — “Gloves come off in mayoral debate” — and even more so on the televised debate Oct. 29 — “Slugfest: Mayoral candidates go on the attack in TV debate.” These debates quickly devolved into wild allegations and personal attacks, which were met by attempts to counter these. The result was that the candidates were unable to present their vision, offer their perspective and propose solutions to the city’s challenges.

How do the voters benefit from this behavior? They don’t. Substance too often falls by the wayside. This kind of negative campaigning is a disservice and, frankly, an insult to the intelligence of the voters. Unfortunately though, this type of behavior from candidates is strongly encouraged by our current system. The way you win an election is by discrediting your opponent.

Given this political reality, it is hardly a surprise that many voters are disillusioned and disengaged from the political process. Albuquerque saw a greater than usual voter turnout during the Oct. 3 election, with almost 30 percent of registered voters showing up to the polls. Still, this means that 70 percent of voters did not. And voter turnout is likely to go down for the run-off election

A simple electoral reform, called ranked choice voting (RCV), could profoundly change the way political campaigning happens in Albuquerque. Already slated to be used for Santa Fe elections in 2020 and possibly as soon as 2018, RCV is now a built-in option with our state’s voting equipment that is ready to be used with essentially the flip of a switch. Hotly contested but largely civil RCV elections for mayor this fall in the Minnesota cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis underscore how better rules can promote better politics.

RCV eliminates the runoff election as we know it, saving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and instead creating an instant runoff in one higher-turnout election. Rather than a voter going to the ballot and selecting one candidate and then being asked to come back to vote six weeks later in a runoff, voters are given the freedom to rank candidates in order of preference. All first choices are counted, and if a candidate has a majority, then they win, just like any other election.

However, if nobody has a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and those voters have their ballot instantly count for their next choice. The process continues until a candidate receives a majority of votes, and is declared the winner.

Significantly, with regard to negative campaigning, RCV elections encourage candidates to be less divisive and seek the backing among the other candidates’ supporters. They need to ask voters to consider them as their second- or third-choice candidate, even if the voter prefers another candidate as their first choice. Candidates are thus incentivized to talk about their vision and substantively compare and contrast to that of their opponents.

A more civil discourse leads to less negative campaigning and reduces negative ads and personal attacks as we have so painfully been experiencing during this election cycle. It is time for Albuquerque to consider adopting RCV. The voters deserve better than this.