Majority rules govern rank-choice voting. While this might seem acceptable, it is not usually the case. This idea is designed to assist the candidate from the lesser-favored parties in winning the election. It also takes much longer to tally the votes, often taking weeks to know the winner. To make it work fairly, one would need a separate primary election to determine who would move on to the primaries preceding the general elections. Sounds rather confusing? It is!
How It Works
Take, for example, our primary elections held in August. The Republican Party had nine people running for governor. The Democrat Party had five candidates, and the Libertarian Party had a single candidate. Voters would choose between one and three candidates who they want to run for office in the general elections. Regardless of party affiliation, the three candidates with the most votes continue.
Isn’t that what we do now?
No! The Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian winners all proceed to the general elections. Under Rank-Choice Voting, the three people with the most votes win.
As in this case, the Republican votes would be dissembled across all none candidates, the Democrat votes across five people, and the Libertarian gets all of his votes. Thus, although there are more Republicans actually voting in Missouri, they are spread between nine candidates. For this election, about 698,000 voters voted Republican. Evenly distributed, that makes 77,500 per candidate. For the Democrats, about 378,000 voted. Divided amongst its candidates, each would get 75,600 votes. The Libertarian still receives 2,400 votes. A few more votes to one candidate and not to another, and we could have three Democrats in our general election- no Republican or Libertarian. It works the same if Republicans voted more or less, as all candidates would be Republican in the general election- no Democrats or Libertarians.
And…
Because of the counting and recounting to find the winners, tallying the votes could take an extremely long time. This leaves ample time for fraud and abuse. This is only one office. Add to this each office we vote for; months could pass before we know any winners.
Bypass This
A party would need a primary before the Missouri primary to bypass the separation of votes. This would determine which candidate they would put forth against other parties—similar to the general elections.
Alaska has this type of voting. While the underdog got the votes, voting citizens are working hard to ensure it will not happen again.
Disallowing rank choice voting is proposition 7. If you do not want rank-choice voting or illegal people to vote, you vote yes. If you Do want illegal people to cast their ballots and to allow rank choice vote, vote No.
Remember, election day is November 5.
