I understand the wavering. I voted uncommitted in my primary because Biden will win that without my help and it’s a small way of officially filing my disappointment. But if (let’s be honest, when) I get my presidential ballot and I have a choice between Trump and Biden and probably some third party, I’ll hold my nose and cast a vote for Biden. As much as I hate it, it’s not even a question.
It depends where you live. If you are in a deep red state, it doesn’t matter. If we went blue enough for my vote to swing the state, Biden has already won anyway. I feel safe voting 3rd party and not giving him a symbolic popular vote.
With no electoral college, down ballot matters. Vote blue on those!
No doubt I’ll be voting. My state has turned from red to purple to blue pretty consistently over the past decade or two, so I do feel pretty safe that Biden will swing the electoral college here. Down ballot does matter, and I’ll be doing my research on the more local matters before casting my ballot. The ballot I just filed was for the Democratic primary, and there were no other items to vote on. My city passed ranked choice voting for city level elections, and this year I believe will be the first election where we get to use that system. I’m excited to see how it goes and if that will be used to swing our local politics harder to the left.
I’m excited to see how it goes and if that will be used to swing our local politics harder to the left.
Oh, I hope so.
My one worry about ranked choice is that it’ll be only marginally better, and the, er, mathematical quirks of it will freak people out about voting reform.
There was a story I half remember about Republicans giving the popular vote in a ranked choice to two of their candidates (a vote split, huge problem with fptp) and accidentally letting in a Democrat or something. It was the thing that made me realize I actually wanted STAR.
Doesn’t Australia have ranked choice? They probably like it, right?
I understand the wavering. I voted uncommitted in my primary because Biden will win that without my help and it’s a small way of officially filing my disappointment. But if (let’s be honest, when) I get my presidential ballot and I have a choice between Trump and Biden and probably some third party, I’ll hold my nose and cast a vote for Biden. As much as I hate it, it’s not even a question.
It depends where you live. If you are in a deep red state, it doesn’t matter. If we went blue enough for my vote to swing the state, Biden has already won anyway. I feel safe voting 3rd party and not giving him a symbolic popular vote.
With no electoral college, down ballot matters. Vote blue on those!
Make sure you vote though!
No doubt I’ll be voting. My state has turned from red to purple to blue pretty consistently over the past decade or two, so I do feel pretty safe that Biden will swing the electoral college here. Down ballot does matter, and I’ll be doing my research on the more local matters before casting my ballot. The ballot I just filed was for the Democratic primary, and there were no other items to vote on. My city passed ranked choice voting for city level elections, and this year I believe will be the first election where we get to use that system. I’m excited to see how it goes and if that will be used to swing our local politics harder to the left.
Oh, I hope so.
My one worry about ranked choice is that it’ll be only marginally better, and the, er, mathematical quirks of it will freak people out about voting reform.
There was a story I half remember about Republicans giving the popular vote in a ranked choice to two of their candidates (a vote split, huge problem with fptp) and accidentally letting in a Democrat or something. It was the thing that made me realize I actually wanted STAR.
Doesn’t Australia have ranked choice? They probably like it, right?
You may be thinking of this scenario in Alaska: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-alaskas-new-voting-system-helped-deliver-historic-win-us-democrats-2022-09-01/
Yeahh, that’s it.