POLITICO story on the difference that specific electoral rules can make in protecting democracies from the risk of authoritarian extremism. In this case, the focus is on Washington’s “top two” primary system, which the state shares with California. ELB readers know that I’ve been emphasizing Alaska’s new “top 4” system, which uses Instant Runoff Voting in the general election, with an eye to Senator Lisa Murkowski’s reelection bid to make a similar point. More broadly, Congress could require states to choose among alternative majority-winner systems. Both Washington’s and Alaska’s would comply. Both would do much better at protecting democracy from election denialism, and other anti-democracy tendencies, than the predominant plurality-winner system.