Ranked-choice voting — the way to go
Woodside: The New York City Charter Commission will soon have the chance to put ranked-choice voting on our November ballot, and this is something every New Yorker should be fighting for. Right now, we’re locked into a voting system where few candidates can break into the race with hopes of winning, and few voters feel like their elected representatives truly represent them.
Ranked-choice voting is a simple solution. It lets voters list multiple candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a majority from first-choice votes, then the losing candidate will be eliminated, and those votes will be transferred to the voters’ second choice.
By eliminating spoiler candidates, and promoting broader and more diverse fields, ranked-choice voting gives voters more choice, more voice and more power to choose representatives that will truly reflect their best interests.
Democracy is strongest when more choices are available and more voices are heard. That’s why we need ranked-choice voting.
Lake Worth, Fla.: To Voicer Robert Kralick: You got me, I’m a never-Trumper. You asked why I have this deranged hatred for him. It has nothing to do with getting over the fact that Hillary Clinton lost. That’s not it. There are so many reasons that it would take the entire editorial page to explain them. To be brief, the fact that he was a five-time draft dodger is the reason I brought up his family history in draft dodging. Did you know that his great-grandfather was deported from Germany because he was a draft dodger? See, it runs in the family. As for bringing up the military records of other presidents, I was not happy that Bill Clinton did not serve when my own brother was drafted into the Army and
served two tours in Vietnam. Clinton said he was a conscientious objector and he told them right to their faces at the draft board. As for Barack Obama, obviously you need to be educated on this one. He was too young to serve in Vietnam and there was no draft by the time he was eligible to serve in any military. Richard Blumenthal? Well, at least he served in the Reserves. And he served during the Vietnam era. What did Drumpf do? If you paid attention to any of the interviews this past week, he basically said it was too far away and that’s why he didn’t want to go. Nobody had ever heard of Vietnam then. He derided people who went to Canada to avoid the draft. I think people would’ve looked more kindly on him for doing that because at least he would have been standing up for something. Instead, he had his daddy buy his way out. Do you see the difference now? Please, do us all a favor and do your homework. Long Island City: Why are we still listening to groups like TransitCenter and Reinvent Albany (“Cuomo threatens to kneecap MTA budget, imperils key subway repairs,” June 5)? They gave the MTA exactly what they wanted, the $15 billion debt scheme known as congestion pricing, without first extracting basic good-government requisites, such as transparency and accountability. That they now have “concerns” over the MTA’s debt and spending is laughable. Mt. Sinai, L.I.: To Voicer Wanda Lucci: I would like to hear you explain this to an eleven-year-old girl whose been impregnated by her father, and needs to attend genetic counseling to understand how flawed the outcome will be. Be sure to couch it with “This is God’s will!” to further enamor her zest for any future. Your idea of how life or God should be is, at best, personal, and does not apply to everyone. Climb out of your pulpit. Manhattan: If I hadn’t watched the actual spelling bee competition with my own two eyes, I would probably have rolled my eyes sarcastically at the headlines the next morning and thought to myself, “Eight winners? Gee, I sure hope everybody got a participation medal!” But, that wouldn’t have been even close to a fair response. These kids were simply astounding! In a way, they “broke the bee” the way James Holzhauer cracked the code on “Jeopardy!” The fact that eight of these kids managed to accomplish that feat, all in the same year, is certainly not their fault. A player is given a set of ground rules and their job is to figure out the best way to prepare to seize the moment and defeat their competition. These young warriors did just that. They deserve all the credit in the world. It’s up to the Scripps National Spelling Bee to make some adjustments come next year so that this somewhat embarrassing logjam ending doesn’t end up happening year after year. I might suggest a time clock be employed for each competitor once round 15 comes around.
Safety first
Lincoln Park, N.J.: Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manford said it’s not likely that teams will add more netting this season. Shame on him and them! Teams claim fans don’t like sitting behind netting. Marj and I attend eight games at Citi Field every season and generally sit in section 122 or 123 behind the visitors’ dug out (it’s in the shade after the third inning). I guarantee that you don’t know the netting is
GETTY IMAGES there until a foul ball comes whizzing at you at 100 mph and bounces off it. I know all about the thrill of wanting to catch a ball at a game. I’m approaching 80 but I was a kid once. To exacerbate the problem, there are more and more people staring into some hand-held device not paying attention to the game. I don’t know the cost of a baseball used in a majorleague game, but is it worth the eyesight of a child who had no chance of catching it to begin with, or does a defenseless child have to be killed first?
Something’s fishy
Bronx: It is too coincidental that three seemingly vibrant people would die at the same hotel of the same cause, pulmonary edema and respiratory failure (“Third American mysteriously died of respiratory failure at hotel in Dominican Republic, family says,” June 5). My suggestion is that the families hire their own medical examiner to conduct a second autopsy on the victims, which would include toxicological testing. Condolences to the families.