Local View: Ranked-choice voting has merits

A recent Columbian editorial (Oct. 9) concerning ranked-choice voting and Charter Amendment No. 10 did a nice job of explaining the rationale for the proposal and how it works. It is also noteworthy that the editorial acknowledged the benefits of RCV, including bolstering moderate candidates, discouraging negative campaigns, and increasing voter satisfaction — all of which are much needed right now. At the same time, however, it’s worth revisiting and respectfully addressing some of the concerns the editorial raised. Perhaps this can be done best by an analogy.

Imagine that for many years in all of Clark County only two kinds of ice cream could be purchased from only two creameries and each of those tended to occasionally produce ice creams that many people did not particularly like — consider, for example mustard flavor versus broccoli ice cream. To try and sell their products, each creamery spent millions of dollars telling people how bad the other creamery’s flavors were rather than improving the taste of their own brand. So, the choice people were too often left with was either to choke down the least bad of the two flavors or chose no ice cream at all.

Now, imagine that along came a new creamery, let’s call it Real Creamy Varieties or RCV for short, with the innovative idea of offering multiple different flavors. Of course, not everyone liked every flavor on the menu, but by offering more and different choices people were more likely to have a backup they could feel good about if their first choice was unavailable.

Some folks might say, this is too confusing, I liked it better when there were only two choices. And for sure, the first two creameries would spend a lot of money trying to convince the public of just that argument so they could keep selling mustard and broccoli ice cream. But most people would probably not get overwhelmed by the idea that if their favorite flavor was unavailable they could go with a second choice. Neither would they be confused by having multiple choices of flavors but then being asked to make a binary decision between a cup or a cone. We make choices like these all the time in our lives and we’re generally much happier when we have options to choose from.

And so it is with our current election structure versus ranked-choice voting. The way we’ve been doing things lately is leaving a very bad taste for a lot of people and turning off far too many Americans, especially younger voters. Ranked-choice voting and Amendment 10 may not be perfect, and I share the Columbian’s wish that they applied more promptly and statewide, but this is an opportunity to give voters more, not fewer choices. It will encourage candidates to listen and reach out beyond just their own base, tend to favor moderation and cooperation and may well decrease negative advertising.

As someone who has been through a lot of elections, has dear friends in both political parties, and worked across the aisle on countless issues, I am deeply concerned about the bitter partisanship and extremism in politics today.

With Amendment 10, Clark County has an opportunity to lead the state and the nation by establishing a method that ensures those who are elected will be more likely to have the broadest support from the majority of the electorate. That’s ultimately good for Clark County and for the country.

Brian Baird was the congressional representative from Washington’s 3rd District from 1999-2011.