How Florida is amplifying the call for ranked choice voting in elections
The way we elect our political leaders is deeply flawed, giving us scorched-earth politics and gridlocked government. Federal and state legislature approval ratings hover between 10% and 30%. At the same time, incumbents win about 90% of elections. They only need to get one more vote than anyone else.
Incumbent congressmen choose their voters by gerrymandering voting districts so their political party will win the General Election. Incumbent congressmen are mostly worried about being challenged in their closed primary elections, so they appeal to the extreme elements of their party who make up the core of their party’s closed-primary voters. Then, after the incumbent wins the primary election, they change their campaign speeches to appeal to more centrist voters in the general election. After they win the general election, they go back to being mostly worried about being challenged in their party’s closed primary election by someone more extreme than them.
After general elections, left and right political parties first try to purge their in-group moderates. Some congressmen fear they will be criticized as disloyal if they compromise on legislation with congressmen of the other political party, so they vote party-line in Congress regardless of the merits of the proposed legislation. They support whatever the other party opposes, and oppose whatever the other party supports, even if the proposed legislation is the same. Our two-party system is not working for the voters.
The news media reports on politics like they report on sporting events. They focus on the fighting between the two “teams.” Party loyalists and elected officials discuss politics that same way; us vs them, good vs bad, party/team loyalty, zero sum game, winner take all.
Currently, you can choose only one candidate. If your favorite isn’t a front-runner, you could waste your vote by picking them, helping elect someone you really disagree with. One simple change called ranked choice voting (RCV) gives more power to voters. You rank the candidates: your favorite is your first choice, your next preference your second choice, etc. If your favorite is eliminated, your ballot counts for your next choice.
With ranked choice voting:
Multiple candidates can run without being “spoilers”
,who split votes away from similar candidates, causing both to lose.Voters get more choices; politicians get healthy competition.
Candidates need to win broader support of a majority of voters, not just a narrow, loyalist base. To do this, they must earn second or third choice rankings from their opponents’ supporters. So negative campaigning would be reduced.
From 2017 to 2022, several Florida cities wanted to use ranked choice voting for local elections so Floridians could gain experience and confidence in this voting system, but the state government delayed its implementation. Then in 2022, the Florida Legislature created Statute 101.019, prohibiting the use of RCV for local, state, and federal elections in Florida.
In 2020, a ballot initiative for top-two open primary elections garnered 57% of the popular vote, just short of the 60% required for adoption. Rank My Vote Florida is supporting the combination of a top-five open primary elections with RCV being used in the general election. National and local organizations are supporting similar efforts in six states for 2024. The momentum behind election reforms is building. We need to get our elected officials aligned with voter’s needs.
Our focus is still to raise awareness about RCV with Florida voters and attract funding and volunteer support. To attract national donors, we need to show strong in-state funding. A recurring donation would be a great help. Please visit https://www.rankmyvoteflorida.org/donate This will go to the Rank My Vote Florida Education Fund which is a 501-C3, so all donations are tax deductible.
The upcoming presidential primaries and the 2024 presidential election will probably help make our case for RCV and open primary elections. Americans are ready for a change. If we get a replay of Trump-Biden in 2024, that clearly makes the case that the current pick-one system is broken.
John Schussler is a team leader with Rank My Vote Florida, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit Florida organization working to bring Instant runoff voting/ranked choice voting to local, state, and federal elections in the Sunshine State.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Why Florida must reverse denial of ranked-choice voting process
