Vox: Maine could become the first state in the nation to have ranked-choice voting

First, we had the Republican primary. Donald Trump won, but he did not win a majority in any single state until relatively late, April 19.  Trump was also the most unpopular Republican candidate among almost a quarter of Republican voters. Had Republican primary voters used a system of instant-runoff, ranked-choice voting, Trump probably would not have been the nominee. That's because many Republicans would have ranked him dead last, or probably not at all.

Now, in the general election, many are worried that support for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein is making this election closer than it should be. Hillary Clinton may not be the most inspiring candidate to many voters, but most Stein or Johnson supporters would likely support her over Trump if they could rank the candidates. If so, an instant-runoff, ranked-choice voting approach would significantly decrease the likelihood of Trump becoming president.

All this is why I'm eagerly anticipating the results of a Maine state initiative that could make the Pine Tree state the first in the nation to use ranked choice voting to elect a legislature, a governor, and members of Congress. [...]

So far, ranked-choice voting systems have only been used in municipal elections in the US (though a few states use them for overseas voters). There are now 11 US cities using ranked-choice voting. However, since many city elections are effectively nonpartisan (typically, one party has an overwhelming majority) and also tend to be relatively low-turnout affairs, it's hard to be sure exactly what would happen on the state level. Still, there are some things we can learn from the municipal experiences so far. [...]

Think about it: The single-vote, winner-take-all, zero-sum nature of our current elections encourages candidates to tear each other apart, since voters only can choose one candidate. But if candidates start competing to be voters' second and third choices, they have incentives to play a little nicer with each other so as to not alienate potential supporters. You can imagine candidates saying, "Vote for me, but also pick this person second." Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges explains this well in this video clip talking about her 2013 election.

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