Re:Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate
by aldonius on Sunday July 21, 2024 @07:12PM
(#41029203)
By more-or-less eliminating spoiler effect RCV actually benefits major and minor party candidates (and of course, voters!).
For majors the benefit is clear: you don't get spoiled.
For minors, you don't have to overcome the barrier of being a spoiler if the race looks remotely close.
And of course voters are not disadvantaged just for having two acceptable choices rather than one.
Re:Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate
by lann on Sunday July 21, 2024 @07:08PM
(#41029164)
Top-2 is a primary system, not a voting system. When combined with (essentially a generalized version of) FPTP you get most of the same problems.
Re:Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate
by Aloisius on Sunday July 21, 2024 @08:06PM
(#41029603)
It's a two-round voting system. It is, by definition, not FPTP.
There only functional difference between it and say, the original French two-round system that Maurice Duverger (of Duverger's law) contrasted with FPTP is that someone who wins an outright majority in the first election (an open "primary" in California) is not immediately elected.
The fact the main election is FPTP doesn't matter as there are only two candidates for a single seat - most voting systems degenerate to FPTP at that point.
I’m not sure why they would reduce party influence either. Features like being robust against spoilers would seem to most benefit major party candidates.