Re:Maine Ranked Choice Voting Initiative Approved
by r_smart on Monday November 14, 2016 @12:56PM
(#12951739)
People just frequently complain when a candidate didn't get 50% of the popular vote in an election. I think it's silly, but it's common. Many people's argument in favor of this initiative is seeing that 50% number. If it doesn't actually produce that reliably, then it's not solving the problem people want solved.
Personally, I don't mind if someone wins with 43% of the popular vote. I don't even mind FPTP much, and yes, I mostly vote third party. But from other people in the state, that 50% number was a concern, and I don't think this addressed that adequately.
Re:Maine Ranked Choice Voting Initiative Approved
by vishvananda on Monday November 14, 2016 @04:01PM
(#12953322)
If you tend to vote third party, You should consider being against FPTP voting, because it almost always leads to a two-party system[1].
E.g. in the extreme case, with three candidates, suppose everyone hated the other two options so much that they refused to even write in a #2 choice.
Of course, this seems like a completely silly argument, because it's much more likely to generate majorities than the single-choice system.