Typically it’s not a choice - it’s a result of your ballot system.
Ranked ballots, directly for candidates, can easily prevent this. People need to trust that their vote is not squandered if they throw in behind some longshot, or if they like several similar options.
Juuust don’t do “Ranked Choice” specifically, for single-winner elections. The multi-winner version, Single Transferable Voting, works as intended. RCV gets stupid results and has suspicious backing. You want a Condorcet system like “Ranked Pairs.”
Or… just check as many names as you like, for Approval Voting. That approximates Condorcet results and there’s no good reason it isn’t the default.
I say “typically” because of Sri Lanka, which has ranked ballots, but is apparently too thick to use them. Most voters still pick one guy and cross their fingers. They have the option to vote for every candidate they do not despise, if their first-, second-, and tenth-favorite candidates cannot win. But for some goddamn reason, they act like their system is as broken as America’s.
Typically it’s not a choice - it’s a result of your ballot system.
Ranked ballots, directly for candidates, can easily prevent this. People need to trust that their vote is not squandered if they throw in behind some longshot, or if they like several similar options.
Juuust don’t do “Ranked Choice” specifically, for single-winner elections. The multi-winner version, Single Transferable Voting, works as intended. RCV gets stupid results and has suspicious backing. You want a Condorcet system like “Ranked Pairs.”
Or… just check as many names as you like, for Approval Voting. That approximates Condorcet results and there’s no good reason it isn’t the default.
I say “typically” because of Sri Lanka, which has ranked ballots, but is apparently too thick to use them. Most voters still pick one guy and cross their fingers. They have the option to vote for every candidate they do not despise, if their first-, second-, and tenth-favorite candidates cannot win. But for some goddamn reason, they act like their system is as broken as America’s.