Walter Olson at Cato has the following reflection on the recent round of election reform in which he cautions commentators to distinguish “ambitious” reforms that “abolish[] party primaries and then employ[] RCV in a general election” (like in Alaska) from more moderate efforts to introduce rank-choice voting into the existing party primary system.
“On the whole, RCV finds more of a footing in places where politics is dominated by one party—large cities are the model case—and where reformers can pitch it as a way to make primaries work better.”