this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

WOOOOO YEAH BABY

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Ngl, I struggle with how the votes are tallied and have to think about it for way longer than I should to understand it.

I'm embarrassed to admit that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It varies between implementations, here's a rough example for how the concept works (details may differ)

It's important to emphasize that in each step each ballot only counts for one candidate.

First you count 1st choice votes. If there's already a winner here then you're done. Second choices don't matter if a majority already agree on a first choice.

If not (eg. if no candidate has above 50%) then you eliminate the least popular candidates first. Once a candidate has been eliminated, any ballot with the eliminated candidate as 1st gets transferred to the 2nd choice candidate.

Consider the US election - if your first choice is a 3rd party candidate instead of the 2 well known ones, they're probably not getting a lot of votes. Once it's determined your 1st choice can't win and they're eliminated, your 2nd choice on the ballot is counted instead. This stacks on top of the not-eliminated 1st choice votes from the first step.

Why does this matter politically?

Because of say Trump gets 48% 1st choice votes, Biden gets 40% 1st choice and then 12% 2nd choice votes = 52% total and a win, then that's a powerful signal about which alternative candidates can become viable and a powerful method of expressing discontent with the primary candidate despite being willing to vote for "the lesser of two evils". You can express your first preference without giving a bad candidate a bigger chance to win.

Another interesting feature is that it's possible to win a majority of votes being 2nd choice votes, but that's really only likely if there's many candidates and 1 candidate that most finds acceptable but not preferred, because all the ones that are preferred by a few but disliked by most gets disqualified one by one until all those votes has gotten transferred to the broadly acceptable candidate

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

If you dive into the theory at all about how ranked choice systems are gamed I think everyone is doomed for a headache.

Don't feel bad, it's infinitely better than what we have broadly, but it demands a lot more of the average voter if you're not voting a party ticket. If you're struggling you're doing it right.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (2 children)

And yet here in Alaska there's a concerted effort to eliminate Ranked Choice Voting, I can only assume by people who are upset at the establishment losing some of it's grip.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Ranked choice is already banned in 10 red states BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY'D FUCKIN LOSE!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

Status gonna quo

[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago

LOOOOUD NOISES

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (1 children)

RCV: It's voting, but you get to be more judgemental.

There. Marketing for a sizeable portion of the electorate to get on board with it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Tier list voting

[–] [email protected] 74 points 4 months ago (7 children)

I don't know why people think RCV would be considered difficult, we love ranking shit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Tier zoo has entered the chat

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I just watched the Turtle list the other day haha

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

And we have fucking computers to do most of the heavy lifting!

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Ballot design.

Some RCV ballot designs are better than others. For example:

Also, as an experience designer who has had the pleasure of sitting in many many user tests, never under estimate how dumb people are. Some people are going to be confused by the new thing because it’s new. Good news is that this goes away after an election or two and most of the public gets used to it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

How dare you rack Dr Cherry Blossom so low. SHE STRIPPED HER WAY THROUGH MED SCHOOL

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah that's an incredibly good point.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Great example names BTW! GoGo/Sauce 2028!

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

It's about preservation of power.

In any solid red or blue location, the party in control will promote any narrative to discredit RCV because it could only weaken their influence in the area.

For example, most people who are progressives vote blue only because the alternative is far worse. But if a heavily blue state were to pass RCV, it might mean gasp that Democrats lose seats to a more progressive party.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

WORST nightmare of liberal fortresses with a significant percentage of alienated progressives such as Detroit, Portland, Austin and all of California!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Fuck you Betty, Sue is my #1 MySpace friend!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We should explain it to voters as "create a buzzfeed listicle of your favourite politicians"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

RCV: where you create a tier list of all available candidates

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Yup, just gotta build up the movement and educate people so they can pressure the politicians.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Do they say what state or are we supposed to just know this is Virginia?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

In a strange quirk, it was actually every city in the U.S. named Arlington at the same time.

~Disclaimer:~ ~I~ ~am~ ~lying.~

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Darn, I missed it, about halfway down

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago

Across Virginia and nationwide, voters say they like RCV and want to expand it.

Not the clearest, but it's in there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ahh yes but what was their second choice on those points?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

well... doesn't matter, ranked choice hit the threshold. ;-)

ranked choice voting will help save whats left of american democracy.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Sorry about the caps. It’s the title of the article.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

IT’S OKAY. WE UNDERSTAND.