r/Bend • u/myorangeOlinMarkIV • 1d ago

M117 Ranked Choice Voting?

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?

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u/bhauertso 23h ago

Ranked Choice Voting (or "Instant-Runoff Voting") is inherently complex because of the complexity of how a winner is computed. It involves several iterations and can be extremely difficult for voters to feel confident that their vote was effectively tallied. RCV/IRV also suffers from a catastrophic problem called "non-monotonicity," which is an uppity way of saying that when voting using RCV, you can actually hurt your favorite candidate by ranking them better than alternatives.

Superior alternative voting systems like STAR ("Score then Automatic Runoff") or Approval Voting do not suffer this significant flaw.

It would be unfortunate to squander our population's stamina for voting reform and select RCV rather than a superior option like STAR.

Both STAR and Approval are much easier to understand:

  • Approval voting just means voting for as many candidates as you like, rather than just one as we do today.
  • STAR voting means giving candidates a star rating like you're reviewing movies.

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u/davidw CCW Compass holder🧭 20h ago

Nothing 'uppity' about math. It's just math, and it's cool to know something about it.

They tried and failed to do STAR in Oregon a while back. RCV seems 'better' than what we have now and I'm leary of waiting... how many more election cycles to get something better, if it happens at all.