The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
We need ranked choice voting for Connecticut
The mob violence on display at the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6 provided a stark reminder of democracy’s fragility.
Our nation’s dysfunctional election systems desperately need attention, something which became clear long before a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. No single reform will address the full range of challenges, and partisans on all sides disagree about what needs reforming and how. Yet the high level of disagreement gives us the more reason to act wherever we can find common ground.
Voter Choice Connecticut is advocating a simple, feasible change to our election procedures that favors no partisan cause: ranked choice voting.
In current state and federal elections, each Connecticut voter marks a ballot for one candidate only, and the candidate with the most votes wins. Unfortunately, in elections featuring more than two candidates, this method of “plurality voting” often fails to represent the voice of a majority.
In crowded early primaries from February through March of 2016, Donald Trump emerged as a victor despite two-thirds of the Republican voters casting ballots for one of his rivals. In 2000, George Bush won the state of Florida (and with it the presidency), by less than 600 votes, while “spoiler candidate” Ralph Nader received 97,000 votes. Exit polling showed that a significant majority of Nader voters preferred Al Gore to Bush. In 2018, Connecticut Republicans witnessed conservative-minded spoiler candidates receiving 62,000 votes in a race that Republican Bob Stefanowski lost by only 44,000 votes.
Such situations are not rare. Both Democrats and Republicans routinely field candidates who lack majority support within their own parties or go down to defeat because of vote-splitting spoilers. The real victims are all citizens, regardless of party, and general confidence in democracy itself.
How does ranked choice voting (RCV) work? Rather than being forced to mark a ballot for one candidate only, voters have an option to rank a second or third preference, and so on. If more than 50 percent of voters make a candidate their first preference, that candidate wins immediately and outright. However, if no candidate obtains a majority, RCV provides for an “instant runoff”: the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and the second choices of those voters are transferred to the remaining candidates. A process of elimination continues until one candidate reaches a 50 percent majority.
Ranked choice voting assures that a true voter consensus emerges in every election. In addition, all voters can freely express their real first preference without worrying that their votes will be “wasted,” or even contribute to electing the candidate they like the least. In crowded primary elections, RCV makes political parties less vulnerable to narrowly focused factions. In general elections, independents and third-party candidates can run without becoming “spoilers.” RCV also curbs vicious, negative campaigning, as candidates realize they need to appeal to voters for whom they might become a second or third preference.
Believing that it is urgent to strengthen our democracy, we are calling on the Government Administration and Elections Committee to report out House Bill 5884, introduced Jan. 28, which would create a nonpartisan task force to study whether and how to use RCV for future Connecticut elections.
Connecticut has already demonstrated great leadership in electoral reform. Led by GAE Committee Senate chair Mae Flexer and House chair Dan Fox, our state acted in 2018 to become the 12th of 16 states and jurisdictions to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Once enough states join this compact, it will guarantee the presidency to the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide. Connecticut next acted in 2020 to expand absentee voting, ensuring voter safety and creating record voter turnout.
Connecticut can keep moving forward by carefully examining the merits of ranked choice voting, now being used in Maine, Alaska, and more than 20 major American cities, as well as other countries around the world. A simple, nonpartisan change to the way we vote can make our democracy more representative of real voter preferences.
The mob violence on display at the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6 provided a stark reminder of democracy’s fragility. We must act to strengthen it where we can.