| News-Journal Readers ∙ The Daytona Beach News-Journal |
Ranked-choice voting builds consensus, saves money. Elections officials should try it. Creating a more collegial City Council, hiring a new city manager, adding more police, and trash collection were among the topics discussed.
”Essentially, it eliminates the “voting for this candidate is a vote for that other candidate” issue.
The city of Palm Coast r ecently had a special election for mayor. The winner, out of six candidates, received just 36% of the vote. There was no runoff to get to a majority of support.
The city of Daytona Beach is about to go t hrough a special election of its own i n City Commission District 2. If more than two candidates qualify, without any one getting a majority of the vote, there will also be a runoff election. While this guarantees a majority-supported candidate being elected to serve, this could also be a more costly option to the taxpayers.
A solution could be using ranked-choice voting. This will guarantee no more than a single election — with a majority-supported candidate being elected. This also eliminates the downside of voting for a candidate you don’t necessarily like best, but think has a better chance of winning, over a candidate you really don’t like, because voting for the less-likely winner won’t help elect any other candidate. Essentially, it eliminates the “voting for this candidate is a vote for that other candidate” issue.
Voters who don’t like using ranked choice voting, or may not understand it, would still have the option of simply voting for one candidate. It’s a better all-around voting method, which I hope can be adopted in our elections soon.
Joe Hannoush, Ormond Beach
