Letter to the Editor: Support Ranked-Choice Voting

To say that I am concerned about the future of our democracy is an understatement. Elections are divisive and negative because political parties feel they must prove that the other party is despicable in order to win. 

The movement toward ranked-choice voting has given me some hope for the future. With this method, voters get to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a majority of the first-choice votes for an office, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and voters who picked that candidate as their number 1 choice get their votes transferred to their next choice. This process continues until a candidate has a majority (more than half) of the votes. This voting method is already in use in major cities in this country and in the state of Maine. Voters have more choice because they are free to choose the candidates they like best, without the fear of wasting their vote and inadvertently helping elect the candidate they like least. The candidate with the broadest possible support wins the election.  Partisan politics become less important and the value of negative campaigning is diminished. With our current system, there is no denying that negativity works. With ranked-choice voting, candidates have an incentive to run a more positive campaign to try to earn voters’ backup choices.

Here in Illinois, Senator Laura Murphy has recently introduced SB 2267, the Ranked-Choice Voting for President Act. I strongly urge our representative, Dan Caulkins, to support ranked-choice voting and make it a reality in Illinois. And, if you think ranked-choice voting is a good idea, please contact Representative Caulkins and let him know you want him to improve our elections and improve our democracy by supporting ranked-choice voting.

Diane Klock
-Mahomet