There is no one trick to fix American democracy — but implementing ranked-choice voting in primary and general elections around the country could help. This reform is on the ballot in several states this year, as well as in D.C. It deserves to pass.
Referendums in the District, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon will ask voters in November whether they want to institute ranked choice; in Alaska, the question for residents is whether to repeal the same system, first used in the state in 2022. The proposals differ on various details: whether primaries would become open (in most cases), remain partisan (in Oregon’s) or become semi-open, as in D.C. — where independent voters, nearly 1 of every 6 voters in the capital, would be able to choose to vote in either Democratic or Republican contests. But all these contests would be ranked choice.