“W
henever I give a presentation on ranked choice voting, I ask people to raise their hand if they think things are going well politically. Nobody has ever raised their hand,” says Ben Chapman, a local political activist. Chapman serves as the leader of a grassroots
4
BURST
organization known as Illinoisans for Ranked Choice Voting. When the Founding Fathers constructed the United States Constitution in 1787, modern democracies hadn’t fully developed yet, and the few that existed often failed badly. It is by some stroke of luck that our Constitution and electoral system have lasted 243 years. However, since the birth of our nation, republics around the world have changed significantly, and so have we. Now, it’s not unusual to see mayoral elections with nearly ten candidates. Presidential primaries have turned into epic gladiatorial fights where two dozen candidates enter the battle, and only one survives. This, according to Chapman, is at least one of the reasons why no one raises their hand when he asks if they think everything is going well in government. America has long used a plurality election system where whoever gains one more vote than the next candidate becomes the winner. This has created an electoral system that forces many to choose between the lesser of two evils. Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) allows you to rank the candidates in order from favorite to least favorite.
