I just saw a post on Alaska and ranked choice voting. I thought I understood it. Now I don’t.
Help please.
In: 2
The system is sometimes called an “instant run-off” election because it effectively works under the rough rules of a run-off election, but you don’t have to go to the polls multiple times. Instead you put who you want to vote for first, then your 2nd choice is who you’d vote for if that person didn’t run at all, and so on and so forth. You may stop at any time.
During the first “round”, only 1st choices are considered. If someone exceeds 50%, they win. If nobody reaches the goal, the person with the fewest votes is eliminated, and anybody who voted for them 1st have their voted bumped over to their 2nd choice. The process repeats until either someone exceeds 50%.
It’s not perfect. If literally everybody had the same 2nd choice, you’d think that person would be a decent choice as a winner. But it means they got literally zero 1st choice votes, and are the first to be eliminated (assuming nobody else got 50%)
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