Ranked-choice voting eliminates the spoiler effect and lets voters rank their honest preferences instead of voting strategically against a candidate they fear most.
Naima
124
Ranked-choice voting eliminates the spoiler effect and lets voters rank their honest preferences instead of voting strategically against a candidate they fear most.
This assumes voters understand ranking, but exit polls after RCV elections show a meaningful chunk of ballots are exhausted because voters didn't rank enough candidates.
Ballot exhaustion happens, but it's a small minority of ballots, and it only matters in the rare case the race is that close — it doesn't undermine the core spoiler-effect benefit.
Cities that have switched to RCV report higher voter satisfaction and less negative campaigning, since candidates need broad second-choice appeal to win.
Yes, should adopt
RCV tabulation is harder to audit and explain to voters than simple plurality counts, which erodes trust in close, high-stakes elections.
Most voters still just pick one candidate and skip ranking the rest, so in practice it behaves like the current system but costs more to administer.