Political Science 101

My daughter Sara recently sent me a copy of Proposition 131, which is on the ballot for Colorado voters this Fall. Entitled “Establishing All-Candidate Primary and Ranked Choice General Elections”, it would dramatically change the way Colorado voters elect their officials. My initial reaction was positive. Since then, additional study has reinforced this opinion. Personally, I would be happy to see this process implemented broadly across our country. Currently it is used for statewide voting in Alaska and Maine; Nevada has tried it experimentally and has a proposal on the ballot this Fall for permanent adoption of it.

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) can be applied in a variety of ways. My interpretation of Colorado’s proposal has two steps. The first step is an open primary in which all registered voters participate. Candidates capable of acquiring the necessary signatures on a nominating petition are provided with a place on the ballot. If they are affiliated with a specific party, that affiliation can be shown beside their names. Party endorsements are not printed on the ballot; straight-party voters must determine the endorsement on their own. Each voter votes for one candidate; the four with the most votes advance to the General Election ballot. During the General Election, voters have the opportunity, if they choose, to rank the candidates – first choice through fourth. If one candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes, he/she is elected. If no candidate has a majority, the candidate in fourth place is eliminated, and his/her second-choice votes transferred to the other three candidates as first place votes. If this process fails to produce a majority for one candidate, it is repeated; the third candidate is eliminated and his/her second-place votes assigned to the remaining two candidates as first place votes, which automatically produces a winner.

I like this process for a number of reasons. For one, it permits voters who consider themselves Independent to participate in the primary election even though they are not registered to a specific party. I consider myself an Independent, but changed my registration to that of the party firmly in control of my community so I could have some say in the selection of local (municipal and school board) officials. I suspect I am not alone; there are numerous voters in “one-party” communities in the same boat. In reality, I am not sure why anyone would register “Independent”, except to demonstrate disillusionment with both of the current major parties. I was surprised to learn how many voters in our nation consider themselves Independent. According to one source, in 2021 thirty nine percent of the voters nation-wide were registered Democratic, thirty percent Republican, twenty nine percent Independent, and two percent minor parties. Independents outnumbered Republicans in New Jersey and California. Another source reports that Pennsylvania had nearly nine million voters registered, early this year. Nearly forty five percent were Democrats, thirty nine percent were Republican, and sixteen percent were unaffiliated or aligned to minor parties. Incidentally, the eleven offices for which I can vote, from Township Commissioner to President, are all currently occupied by Democrats. I might as well be in North Korea!

Some other interesting statistics I found included the fact that only seventy-three percent of potential voters are registered, and that about ninety two percent of the registered voters actually voted in 2020. One source estimated there are 244 million eligible voters today; I wonder how many of them will vote this year. On one hand, we have folks believing this may be the most important presidential election of our lifetime; on the other, folks so disillusioned with the two choices we have may feel that they have little motivation to vote at all.

Somehow I have failed to recognize that voting procedures vary so much from state to state. Six Federal Constitutional amendments were passed to modify the election process, covering racial, gender, and age discrimination, etc., but the states still have significant leeway to do what they choose.  In addition, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 permitted federal involvement in voting districts where parameters like “percent of eligible voters actually registered” and literacy tests indicated racial discrimination. This is an interesting contrast with voting policy in the early days of our nation when the Founders believed that voting should be left in the hands of the elite – educated owners of property – and that the rabble couldn’t be trusted to select our leaders (an excellent reference for this subject is Federalist Paper #68). In the first Presidential election (1788), only 43,000 popular votes were cast; the population at that time was about 3,900,000. Actually, only ten states participated in that election – North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution, and New York was late convening its electors (I wonder if Aaron Burr was involved). That year women could vote in New Jersey, and free men of color owning property could vote in four northern states.

Another current oddity is the fact that Maine and Nebraska select their electors differently from the “winner-take-all” practice of the other forty-eight states. Two electors (representing the two Senators) are elected state-wide. The electors representing individual members of the House of Representatives are individually elected by Congressional District, frequently producing a split vote in the Electoral College. If the larger states followed this process, the problems resulting from a major discrepancy between the popular vote and the Electoral College would be significantly reduced.

I acknowledge the necessity that we recognize States Rights as a heritage stemming from the nation’s earliest days. Nonetheless, I think the whole election process would be greatly improved if all the states standardized on ranking choice voting for all elections and the Maine/Nebraska approach for selecting electors. Despite the Voting Acts Bill of 1965, I am uncomfortable about illiterate people and those who don’t speak English helping choose our leaders. I never said I wasn’t reactionary!

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