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Whether you are a socialist who believes in a clean break, a dirty break, or no break from the Democratic Party, ranked choice voting for proportional representation should be a top priority. Single-member plurality (SMP) voting drives progressives to vote for centrist Democrats to stop Republican extremists. With ranked choice voting, progressives can vote for the candidates they really support without the fear of “spoiling” the election and enabling rightwing Republicans to win with pluralities.

Ranked choice voting (RCV) eliminates the spoiler problem in elections for executive offices. It ensures that the most preferred candidate wins instead of a plurality winner who may be opposed by most voters. Multi-seat RCV eliminates the winner-take-all problem in elections for legislative bodies. It ensures proportional representation of all political viewpoints. The left gets its fair share of representation that is proportional to its vote.

Multi-Member Districts and Proportional Representation

Most jurisdictions adopting RCV in recent years have retained the single-member-district, winner-take-all system for electing legislators as well as executive officers. This is a problem, since single-member-district elections tend to produce governments dominated by two major parties, whether plurality or ranked-choice voting is used. The left needs to engage the growing RCV movement to insist that multi-seat RCV for proportional representation is not forgotten and suppressed, but becomes the central goal of the movement. Eliminating the spoiler problem with single-seat RCV for executive office elections is good. But eliminating the winner-take-all problem with multi-seat proportional RCV in legislatures is the game changer for the left.