Ann Donnelly offers two flawed arguments against ranked choice voting (“Ranked choice voting would burden voters,” Local View, March 2). First, she warns of the potential burden on apathetic voters, or in her words, “those unable to take time to research all the candidates.” This begs the question: In a healthy democracy should voters who don’t bother to research the candidates be voting at all?
Her second argument focuses on the 2022 special election to fill Alaska’s at-large congressional seat. To Ms. Donnelly’s dismay, the Democratic candidate (Mary Peltola) emerged victorious in a contest using RCV, besting two Republicans who received similar percentages of the vote. But this is exactly what RCV is meant to do — help voters choose the best candidate irrespective of party affiliation.
Donnelly advocates for a system in which uninformed voters choose candidates along party lines. Since her goal is to elect more Republicans, why not simply gut the Voting Rights Act, impose gerrymandered districts and perpetuate obsolete institutions like the Electoral College? That’s how the red states do it.
In contrast, ranked choice voting offers an opportunity to loosen the two-party stranglehold on politics and to attract less-polarizing candidates. I say it’s worth a try.
