Adam Kissel:

Conservatives give me the stink eye when I tell them I favor ranked-choice voting, which many jurisdictions are considering for 2022. But when combined with election integrity and voter education, this alternative voting process has advantages that outweigh its costs. …

Voters also become less likely to game their votes. Voters sometimes avoid “spoiler” candidates who “split” the vote away from a mainstream candidate. But being able to rank a first choice and a second choice lets you vote for the candidate you truly believe is best, even if you think they don’t have a real chance to win, since you know that your second-choice vote will count.

Why do conservatives raise their eyebrows at RCV in any form? They note that several jurisdictions that tried it didn’t like it and went back to winner-take-all. They are rightly concerned about opportunities for mistakes, like the utter failure of RCV in New York City when officials left more than 100,000 test votes in the system–and even fraud, as the counting process gets more complex.

Conservatives also note that the left often favors RCV. It is true that no voting process is without flaw, and whoever chooses the voting process can somewhat game the outcome. 

Conservatives sometimes say that RCV proponents want to confuse voters or otherwise make it easier for more progressive candidates to win. For example, if the left runs a large number of candidates and the right runs just one, candidates on the left will collectively get many more votes.

But in principle, RCV is neutral. And under single-elimination RCV, there is just one round of the runoff, avoiding these issues….