| Steven Hill | DemocracySOS |
In next week’s elections, nine of the US Senate races are so whisper close that either a Democrat or a Republican could win. In each of these races, the presence of multiple candidates from a number of minor parties – Libertarians, socialists, Greens, Constitution Party, Taxpayer Party and more – threatens to “spoil” the race for one of the major party candidates, splitting the vote of a natural center-left or center-right popular majority. When that happens, the least popular of the two major party candidates gets elected…meaning the wrong candidate wins.
”Join together to modernize US electoral methods
The truth is, instant runoff voting/RCV doesn’t benefit either Democrats or Republicans. It benefits voters, who don’t have to worry about wasting their votes on spoiler candidates and inadvertently helping their “greater evil” candidate to win. And it supports democracy, because it ensures that the majority rules, even as minority perspectives can run and compete, gain in visibility and push their ideas into the public discourse.
This should be a nonpartisan issue, and all political parties and perspectives should be able to join together to modernize US electoral methods away from their antiquated 18th and 19th century origins. But such is the toxic environment of today’s hyper-partisan politics that all the Republicans and Democrats can do is finger point and blame and attack. Which only further reinforces how badly we need electoral reform!
