The Electoral College and Ranked Choice Voting

Thanks for this excellent and thought-provoking article, Paul. I invite you to read my analysis of Ranked Choice Voting in an October 2019 medium.com piece (“Schoolyard Tactics by the Bay”) that investigates mayoral elections in the SF Bay Area and the effect of RCV on the results and the process. While you seem to see RCV as a viable option for deciding an election, I’m glad you stated , ‘or a run-off election’ — because I find RCV a nasty little game with a great potential for viciousness and scheming. You and I shared many of the same insights, but for our own reasons we came to opposing conclusions. Two facets of the debate solidify my position against RCV:

1. Run-offs involve human candidates under scrutiny. Voters casting ballots is infinitely superior to a technological solution that was selected because run-offs were poorly managed and had low vote counts. Find a way to bring out the electorate and get a robust participation score.
2. The jockeying for position behind the scenes will eventually become a corrupt, entrenched netherworld far beyond the control of politicos and vulnerable to all manner of special (and foreign) interests. The people running these elections and supervising poll workers and security experts are unknown entities who could come under all sorts of pressure and make decisions far beyond their qualifications — Florida in 2000 would be an example of how easily things get derailed, and with practice, the underground plotters will only grow in sophistication and confidence.

In general, we make too many rules and often direct traffic when there are no cars within miles. RCV is another attempt at taking engaged decision-making away from a somewhat chaotic populace and giving it over to an algorithmic system administered by a machine, whose data was culled from a process that may have included a dozen candidates, and now only included two. It doesn’t add up and we need to recognize when we are choosing mechanization over natural processes.

I look forward to future pieces and exchanges on topics like this, and of course with the November election looming we have the Electoral College ready to take center stage, about which I have some interesting sidebar stories that will add to the high-stakes drama.