The Anti-Politics Post

I'm so sick and disgusted by American politics, it's hard to even put it into words, which is a problem for a blogger.  Today, God bless today, I was turned on to a possible solution that mitigates political mudslinging during campaigns and has little regard for a 2-party system.

Do I have anyone's attention?  If you consider yourself a decent, upstanding citizen, then I have a feeling that you're just as disgusted by the Red State vs. Blue State sham!

There are 7 political parties besides Republican and Democrat in the State of Florida.  SEVEN!!!  And they are shut out of the primaries.  When the general election rolls around, nobody has any idea who these candidates are and they're ignored by mainstream media.  This is wrong!  They could be real game changers because people might get behind them if our elections were fair.

What if I told you there was a voting system in existence that:

• Reduces political mudslinging
• Encourages candidates to focus on the issues of the majority of the whole body of voters
• Already accounts for run-offs without demanding voters to go to the polls again
• Decentivizes candidates from attacking their opponents' character
• Fosters moderation and civility
• Leads to winners who are not repulsive to half the voters

Do you think I'm making this up?  

This system has been in place in #Australia for over a century.  #NewZealand and #Ireland use it too.  #SanFrancisco and #Minneapolis have it in place and the voters find the system easy to use and that it produces better elections with better qualified candidates.

I am not making this up.

It's called RCV, short for Ranked Choice Voting.  When there are only two candidates, it works the same as voting does now.  Its magic really shines when there are more than two candidates for a position in office.  Voters get three columns and rank their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice.  If there is no clear majority winner, the system filters out the candidate who got the least votes, and then filters for 2nd choice candidates until a clear majority winner is chosen.

NO RUN-OFF ELECTION NEEDED.  
This saves voters time and effort and gas and lost work.

Here's more info on the fairvote.org site.  Be sure to check out the video clips of Minneapolis voters who used the RCV system.  So easy!  So positive!

Clearly, #Sarasota, I'd LOVE to hear from you.  If South Florida gets on board, the local governments can function for the people again and we'll keep growing upwards from there!

I'm so excited about the prospects of this system!!!

Make someone else's day magical!
Mackenzie

Be sure to hit the BLUE FOLLOW BUTTON near the upper right corner of the desktop version.

#RCV
#RankedChoiceVoting
#Australia
#NewZealand
#Ireland
#SanFrancisco
#Minneapolis
#Sarasota
#FairElections
#Advocacy