Seems like people are uncomfortable with ranked choice because they don’t understand it, but if they grew up with ranked choice, would they be comfortable with the electoral college?
From your article on Portland:
Voters in District 1 were also more unclear about how the city counted ranked choice ballots and expressed less trust that their vote would count than those in other districts. Nearly 50% of District 1 voters polled said they believed that ranking more than one counselor would dilute their vote, which is inaccurate. In comparison, 32% of voters citywide shared this concern.
Thats a confusing poll. Its not clear what concern is being shared. 32% is worried that district #1 votes would be diluted? Sounds like their voter education in district #1 was counter productive, or people got really anxious in district #1 to have 50% confusion.
86% of people do want the winner to have a majority of the vote and RCV gives them that.
Seems like the Portland example may not show the complete picture:
Using voter file data from off-year local elections, Dowling et al. (2024) find individuals living in RCV cities are more likely to vote nationwide. This study also reported evidence that campaigns in RCV cities have higher rates of direct campaign contact with voters than campaigns in similar places without RCV. Using panel data with repeated measures of individual voting over time, results show that people in RCV jurisdictions are significantly more likely to vote in off-year elections than individuals living in non-RCV places, all else equal. Increased campaign contact is shown to be the primary causal mechanism, as discussed above.
As a resident of District 1, I think it was a couple of things.
I don’t think everyone was prepared for the new ballot. If you were expecting a “normal” election and opened your mail in ballot to see this, it would have thrown you, there were 2 ranked choice options, Mayor and City Council Member.
Not only that, but the council race was a top 3 race.
In an election with THIS MANY candidates, it’s contingent on the voter to actually, you know, do research. Both races were non-partisan so it was not as simple as a knee-jerk “All D” or “All R” vote.
I was prepared for it, I sat down with my voters pamphlet, separated out the serious from non-serious candidates, and even THEN I got thrown because my #4 choice for councilor wasn’t actually on the ballot.
They withdrew from the race in time to get removed from the ballot but not in time to get removed from the voter’s pamphlet.
Seems like people are uncomfortable with ranked choice because they don’t understand it, but if they grew up with ranked choice, would they be comfortable with the electoral college?
From your article on Portland:
Thats a confusing poll. Its not clear what concern is being shared. 32% is worried that district #1 votes would be diluted? Sounds like their voter education in district #1 was counter productive, or people got really anxious in district #1 to have 50% confusion.
86% of people do want the winner to have a majority of the vote and RCV gives them that.
Seems like the Portland example may not show the complete picture:
As a resident of District 1, I think it was a couple of things.
Not only that, but the council race was a top 3 race.
I was prepared for it, I sat down with my voters pamphlet, separated out the serious from non-serious candidates, and even THEN I got thrown because my #4 choice for councilor wasn’t actually on the ballot.
They withdrew from the race in time to get removed from the ballot but not in time to get removed from the voter’s pamphlet.
Oh, interesting to hear some of the detailed challenges of it… And yeah I could see that sea of bubbles being very error prone.