this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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[–] namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev 62 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

If I were forced to choose between two choices and I didn't like either, I would not consider myself living in a democracy. Democracy is pointless if you aren't able to vote for a candidate that you actually like.

The solution is reform. If your democracy is not proportional, then it is not a democracy.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Without RCV, there is no path to better candidates. There is a reason so many conservative states have been proactively banning it.

[–] Liz@midwest.social 6 points 5 days ago

No voting system by itself will do much. We need to switch to a proportional system or else minority parties won't have a fair shot at representation. If a party gets 2% of the vote, they should get 2% of the seats. Not possible with single-winner methods.

Ranked Choice Voting is an improvement over plurality voting, but as I've written elsewhere (too lazy to look it up), I think any election with a single winner is still going to end up with weird/disappointing outcomes at least 90% of the time. I think this post is referring to the governor of New York, no? I would rather see a system where the state legislature is elected proportionally, and then the governor would be selected from a coalition agreement between the governing parties - similar to what you see in many national, state and provincial systems across Europe. This system isn't without its downsides, but at least it's harder for incumbent parties to force voters to support them even if those voters don't want to.

Of course, this is a much more fundamental reform, so it's harder to adopt. RCV is definitely an improvement. It's great to see some progress happening out there in the USA.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You are able to do that, it's the entire point of a primary.

It's not the best system, certainly, but it does mean you actually get more than 2 choices.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Sort of?

A comprehensive look at voter turnout from 2000 onwards reveals that the average turnout rate for primary elections is 27% of registered voters, compared to 60.5% for general elections. It should be noted that less than half of the voters who cast a ballot in the general election participate in primaries.

https://goodparty.org/blog/article/primary-vs-general-election

All sorts of problems have solutions. I see this a lot in the tech space, like the need to save a video, Adblock, whatever.

…But generally, people don’t use them. Or know about them.

US primaries feel similar, where voters technically have the ability to choose candidates but, statistically, they don’t.

Attention is finite. Many dont know about primaries. To me, giving people the choice doesn’t matter if it’s obscure and inaccessibly designed.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 days ago

Voters: refuse to vote in primary

Also Voters: "Why are the nominees so terrible?"

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago (6 children)

Tbf, you can write in anyone you like. Will they win? No. But you can do that.

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