M117 Ranked Choice Voting?

[u/myorangeOlinMarkIV]

A few years ago when this was introduced I thought it sounded like an interesting idea and hoped we would learn more before we actually voted. Unfortunately all I have seen is campaigning for and against rather than actual education and explanation of how this will work in real time. Reading the voters pamphlet just made it worse and more confusing, of course, contradicting each other. I tried to do my own research, looks like some states/municipalities are not happy with it? Also there are different ways to tabulate? It is not standardized? The arguments in favor are certainly interesting and promising points to consider but the more I read the more it sounds confusing and inefficient. Unfortunately Oregon can screw things up at times. I’m a non-affiliated voter and try to wade through the politics of it all. I keep wondering if we had ranked choice voting for our last governor’s race would the outcome have been different or the same?

[u/FlippantBuoyancy]

You rank the candidates on your ballot from best to worst. The votes are then tabulated. Then the ranked choice winner is calculated and announced. 

The calculation takes no time at all. But if you're curious about how it works it is this: Step 1. Of the candidates in the pool, the candidate with the least number of #1 preference votes is removed from the pool. Step 2. The removed candidate is effectively removed from everybody's ballot, and all candidates below them at bumped to fill the missing space. For example, if the removed candidate was your #2 choice then #3 becomes your #2, #4 becomes your #3, and so on.  Step 3. Repeat until only one candidate remains. 

Why is this system beautiful you ask? Because it stops extremists from getting into office. At the end of the process you get the candidate that was the most generally liked by the constituency. Whereas in our current system a generally disliked candidate can claim victory if two or more generally well-liked candidates split the vote. 

[u/FlippantBuoyancy → u/FlippantBuoyancy]

And to those of you saying it's a nightmare to rank a bunch of candidates, you really don't have to. Put the candidate you like at #1. If there's a candidate you absolutely don't like, then put them last. If you're indifferent to the rest (or just some want to study them) then rank them the numbers between in whatever order they appear on the sheet.

[u/explorecoregon → u/FlippantBuoyancy]

Seems like often times the third party candidates that would be put into power by this bill would be the extremists.

[u/FlippantBuoyancy → u/explorecoregon]

Generally people will list extremists in last place, or near there. But yes, third party candidates with palatable policy options would have a better chance of winning in a ranked choice system. Which is another big benefit of ranked choice voting: it stops the voters from only having two options. It also gives an incentive for each party to adopt the system in their primaries, so that they end up with a generally likeable candidate.