This video about varieties of ranked choice voting is fascinating. It was linked by @benroyce not long ago and I only just got to watching it today.
It makes me quite interested in approval voting, but frankly it also makes me think that instant-runoff works as designed and would be a vast improvement over what we've got.
(The video also doesn't talk about the complexity of resolving ties in approval voting, which further makes me want to push for instant runoff - the perfect can be the enemy of the good enough, leaving us with what we've got today - the wholly inadequate.)
@johnzajac I continue to think that we need to use ballot initiatives and lobbying to push for universal ranked choice voting. Those tools remain available to us.
RCV rewards appealing platforms and punishes extremist platforms. Over time people will get so hooked on the results of an actual representative democracy that they will refuse to give it up to appease the oligarchs. There will eventually stop being oligarchs.
The most recent highly-visible example of the power of RCV was the election of Zohran Mamdani, who won because of his platform and despite big money on both sides.
And we should be able to sell this to the rural right-wing too. Choose the zealot who exactly matches your crazy beliefs, whatever they are. And still over time as they come to realize that they're not sick or starving and that their kids have a future, they'll be moving in the direction of government that exists to help everyone. They won't get to universal healthcare or universal basic income as fast as some of us, but they will get there.
Here's one of many analyses out there:
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-future-of-the-instant-runoff-election-reform/
If violence is our only tool, we've already lost. Violence doesn't offer a safeguard that reforms will hold. Only a system that engages the public in a positive way has any hope of bringing about the changes we desperately need.
Between rejecting Flock, city owned and operated fiber and the recent push to get #rankedchoice voting (#RCV) on the ballot, I'm willing to admit I'm jealous of #LongmountCO.
Louisville ran fiber, but out sourced the operation to T-Mobile.
Longmont City Council determined privacy concerns were too great to continue sharing data from the AI license plate readers, which collect information on every passing car and have shared information with ICE.
> "Democrat Leadership considering Ranked Choice Primaries for 2028."
DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT
https://www.axios.com/2025/11/24/democrats-ranked-choice-voting-2028-primaries
I'm excited to live in a place with ranked-choice / instant runoff voting!
City elections in Saint Paul use that system: https://www.ramseycountymn.gov/residents/elections-voting/voters/prepare-vote/ranked-voting
Next month is a mayoral election. This'll be the first time I've voted this way, and it's delightfully hard -- I know who I want to rank first, but now I need to rank the other candidates. So I need to go off and actually look up what those candidates have said.
(One big concern of mine is the Summit Avenue bike lane project, which I think is important because (1) I live very close to Summit and use it, partly because (2) it's a major east-west bicycle route for the city and needs to be improved.)
Transition Montréal soutient l'adoption de la représentation proportionnelle
Elon Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI Over App Store Rankings
Here's one of the volunteer spotlights from Rank MI Vote, the #rankedchoice #RCV grassroots group in #Michigan
Michael Kratzenberg 📢
Tadonic the Flautulent
Mason Loring Bliss
Kevin + Drupal + Beard
Raccoon🇺🇸🏳️🌈
Dan Drake 🦆
Paige
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