Ranked choice is good, but we can do better: STAR, range, and approval voting.

There are at least dozens, probably hundreds, of proposed and discussed systems for determining who wins a single winner election. Unfortunately, the most commonly used system appears to be one of the worst.

First past the post/plurality is the kind of voting we’re used to. Each voter chooses one candidate, and the winner is the candidate with the most votes. In some first past the post elections, if no one candidate achieved a majority, there is a second election between the top two candidates called a runoff.

Can we do better? What are some of the alternative election systems? Four are: ranked choice, STAR, approval, and range. These all have advantages and disadvantages, but ultimately, more elections around the world should try them out and share all data so we can better learn how they work.

With the available evidence, which one looks best?

WHAT ARE RANKED CHOICE, STAR, APPROVAL, AND RANGE VOTING SYSTEMS?

Ranked Choice

Ranked choice refers to a handful of election systems that involve similar elements. The most common form practiced is: instead of voting for one candidate in a race, each voter ranks candidates in order from most preferred to least preferred. Once all ballots are counted, if a candidate has a majority of first ranked votes, meaning they are ranked number one on a majority of ballots, then that candidate has won the election. If…