Great News for Third Party Candidates

For ever we’ve had to pick our leaders from one of the two main political parties.  And the problem with that is we tend, especially lately, is that the primaries seems to give us only the most extreme candidates that each party has to offer.

If you want moderation, or if you want something other than the party line down the line, you’re kinda oughta luck.

Want a fiscal conservative but a social moderate?  Good luck.

Want a social liberal but a fiscal moderate?  Again, good luck.

So it seems that we’re stuck in the middle.  Sending our “Knights” out to do battle that look like every knight before him.

Rather depressing.

But there may be a way out.

There may be a method whereby we will be able to get our guys and gals in the hunt.

My problem has always been that in those few cases where some Libertarian candidate actually gets on the ballot, I always ALWAYS feel that if I pull the lever for him, I’m actually giving a vote to one party or the other.  For example, in our last election for Governor here in Carolina, I wanted to vote for the Libertarian candidate.  And I really didn’t want the Democrat to win.  So, I knew that as I voted for my Libertarian, I was really casting a vote for the Democrat.  But I did it anyway.

So, how do we fix this?  Well, we introduce IRV:  Instant Runoff Voting

Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina will make election history in November when it becomes the first state in more than 70 years to attempt instant-runoff voting on a statewide basis.

Awesome!

This solves my problem.

Take my Governor dilemma.  I want to vote for the Libertarian but really don’t want the Democrat to win.  Voting like we always have, I am forced to make choice, support the Democrat or vote for the Republican.

With Instant Runoff Voting I get to vote for my Libertarian WITHOUT helping the Democrat.

It works like this:

I rank the Libertarian #1.

If no candidate gets 50% of the vote, then the guy with the lowest vote total is eliminated and the folks who DID vote for him will have their SECOND CHOICE candidate tallied.

So, I would vote like this:

#1:  Libertarian

#2:  Republican

If no one gets 50%, and my Libertarian is the lowest vote getter, my #2 choice, the Republican, gets my vote.

Perfect!

And yet, there are still folks who are against this:

This blog is for people to comment on the problems with Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) and how we can keep it from creeping into North Carolina under the disguise of election reform.

Insanity and craziness.

Go IRV.

One response to “Great News for Third Party Candidates

  1. Exciting news. Thanks.

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