Improved politics by better candidates, Ranked Voting.

Adopting Ranked Choice Voting for Presidential Primaries

As the chair of the Ethics & Elections Committee in Springfield, I’m proud to be sponsoring an initiative to adopt Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in presidential primaries in Illinois to ensure that no votes go to waste and that we elect better and more prepared candidates for the general election.

The Problem with Traditional Primaries

In the last competitive Illinois presidential primary, a shocking number of votes were wasted: over 70,000 by Democrats and 30,000 by Republicans. This is because state primaries take place over months, and during that time people are voting early or absentee for candidates that sometimes drop out before primary day or don’t receive enough votes in other states to be viable by the time our primary happens.

How RCV Solves the Problem

RCV prevents wasted votes because voters rank the candidates in order of their preference. If their first choice candidate drops out, the voter’s second choice will get their vote, and so on. Therefore, the winner of an RCV election has the support of a larger and more diverse coalition of voters because they pick up second and third choice votes in order to win.

In addition, 98% of voters in the four states that use RCV in their Democratic presidential primaries saw their vote contribute to a candidate winning delegates, compared to just 88% in single-choice primary states like Illinois. This means that under RCV, the winning candidate has more buy-in from more people, making them a stronger nominee going forward.

Proven Success of RCV

Three red states and one blue state use RCV in their Democratic presidential primaries: Alaska, Kansas, Wyoming, and Hawaii. In all four states’ primaries in 2020, voters showed a high level of understanding of the RCV ballots with no significant errors, showing that voters can easily adapt to the ranking system.

Reducing Toxic Politics and Improving Campaigns

Winning RCV candidates need more buy-in to win, which has the extraordinary potential to reduce the toxic politics on both sides of the aisle. Indeed, RCV candidates do better when they run more positive campaigns that focus on the issues that matter most to voters.

Imagine fewer divisive campaigns, fewer personal attacks, and less infighting. Imagine more campaigns that are focused on ideas, problem solving, and solutions. When winning a campaign means winning support from a broader coalition of voters instead of simply inspiring fear or disgust, the future really does look brighter.

Conclusion

Both sides of the aisle want to put up their best candidate to be president, and RCV is a better system to ensure each party has a strong nominee. It’s time for Illinois to join the four other states that have seen the benefits of RCV in their presidential primaries.