Indiana SB277 - Bill to implement Ranked choice voting.

[ArcadiaGP]

Proposed amendment to Indiana constitution that would establish ranked voting for public offices held in Indiana. Seems to be similar to Instant-runoff Voting

https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2016/bills/senate/277

Ranked choice voting. Establishes ranked choice voting for elections for all public offices. Establishes the procedure for a voter to rank the candidates according to the voter's choice when there are three or more candidates for election to an office. Establishes the procedures to count the voter's choices as votes at various stages of tabulating ballots. Makes conforming amendments.

 

[T.Lex]

Wow. I think we just figured out jamil's real name.

 

[phylodog]

How does increasing the complexity of the voting process not introduce additional risk of fraud? I'm not trying to start anything, I have zero understanding of how this works, it just seems voting should be a simple process not requiring additional complexity. Admittedly I'm ignorant here.

 

[Tombs]

This would finally be one step toward a legitimate election process, if only this wasn't national.

How does increasing the complexity of the voting process not introduce additional risk of fraud? I'm not trying to start anything, I have zero understanding of how this works, it just seems voting should be a simple process not requiring additional complexity. Admittedly I'm ignorant here.

Providing they're doing it the way I think they are...

Lets take the presidential election candidate to use for an example.

All of them appear on your ballot, and you place a number next to their name that shows your preference for the candidate. If your no.1 pick does not win, you didn't waste your vote on your no.1 pick because you also got to cast a vote for your no.2 pick.

So you may do this.

1. Gary Johnson
2. Donald Trump
3. Jill Stein
4. Hillary Clinton

Johnson loses but your vote isn't thrown away because Trump would have your vote in that event. Make sense?

 

[drylkuch]

There are a few varieties of ranked voting. And in my opinion all of them make more sense than the electoral college system that we currently have. The ones that I am most familiar with are instant-runoff voting (IRV) and borda count. To illustrate both of these systems lets say that we have 4 candidates: Bill, Tom, Jerry, and James. And you rank them in that order.

Instant-Runoff Voting
In IRV the first candidate from each ballot is counted and if one candidate receives more than half of he vote, then he is elected. Otherwise the candidate who received the lowest vote is eliminated from each person's ballot. So, lets say that after counting everyone's first choice the standings are as follows:

• Bill: 5%
• Tom: 45%
• Jerry: 40%
• James: 10%

No candidate received more than half of the vote. So there is no clear winner at this point. And Bill, the one receiving the lowest number of votes, is removed from everyone's ballot. Our hypothetical ranked ballot would now read:

1. Tom
2. Jerry
3. James

The ballots are recounted based on the new ranked order, and the process continues until there is a clear winner.

Borda Count
This system is a bit simpler. It essentially gives each candidate a point value based on the rank that you choose. So given our ranked order, the candidates would receive:

• Bill: 4 Points
• Tom: 3 Points
• Jerry: 2 Points
• James: 1 Point

The points are counted and the candidate with the highest number of points is elected.

Both of these systems would make it easier for a third party to run and be elected, which would decrease the power of the two primary parties (which is a good thing in my opinion). Unfortunately that would add to the divisions in congress and would likely make it more difficult to get things done. It would also make casting a protest vote more palatable and (if used on a federal level) eliminate some of the quirks of the elector college system which allow candidates to be elected without receiving a majority of the votes.

 

[phylodog]

I appreciate the explanations gentlemen, thank you.

If the Borda Count system increases the likelihood of third (or fourth) party candidates getting elected I reckon I'm all for it. I'd like to see four parties and see them equally represented with 25% each in congress. Making it near impossible to pass new legislation is a great thing. As much as out society has become focused on *****ing about stuff, surely they'd have a much easier time agreeing on legislation that sucks and start repealing the vast majority of it.

 

[Mgderf]

I appreciate the explanations gentlemen, thank you.

If the Borda Count system increases the likelihood of third (or fourth) party candidates getting elected I reckon I'm all for it. I'd like to see four parties and see them equally represented with 25% each in congress. Making it near impossible to pass new legislation is a great thing. As much as out society has become focused on *****ing about stuff, surely they'd have a much easier time agreeing on legislation that sucks and start repealing the vast majority of it.

THAT'S IT!
We need REVERSE government!