WEBVTT - How Ranked Choice Voting Works 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.560 dot com. Good day, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.680 Josh Clark, There's Charles w. Chuck Bryant, There's Jerry. The 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:23.639 trio was reunited like Peaches and Herb and Cream. Peaches 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.480 and Herb and Cream. Yeah, didn't Peaches and Herb sing 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:30.040 reunited and it feels so good. Yeah, but I don't 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:32.400 know how you're Clapton figures in. Well, there's three of 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.200 us here. Oh, gotcha. And Clapton was an all cream. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:38.720 I mean, Ginger Baker was a force to be reckoned 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.680 with two good point? He still is? Is he still alive? 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.680 And unless he died recently. I saw a great documentary 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.800 about him. Yeah. I haven't actually watched it. Is it good? Yeah? 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:55.320 He just looks like it is. He's quite a dude. Yeah. 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.279 I'm excited already to watch it and you should check 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:03.720 it out, Okay, I will. Um. Oh have you seen Hereditary? Oh? Yeah, 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.360 I saw that in the theater. That's pretty cool. Huh. 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:08.640 I liked it. I did too. I like just about 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:13.600 anything puts out. Yeah. Yeah, shout out to eight to four. Yeah. 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.720 Um so, speaking of a twenty four and horror movies, Chuck. 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.040 We were down in Australia recently. We just got back. Yeah, 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.240 I'm sick. I know I am not. I can't believe it, 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.000 but I'm not. Yeah, I got sicken. Where was it Sydney? 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.640 Oh yeah, you were starting to kind of feel under 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.119 the weather, Hugh, it just got full blown. You seemed 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.600 okay on the flight back though that those were the beginnings. 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.119 I think my body was in combat mode. And then 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.119 when I got back here, it just it lowered its defenses. 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.440 It said I'm home, and I got some weird Australian 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:52.040 Australian rhino virus man walking around the airport. It was like, 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:54.760 what what you just sneezed on me? What is that? 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.480 What was that? Yeah? And we should point out to 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.000 people that we took ten plane flights in eleven days. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.640 Is yes, we did, so that that's a pretty good 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.280 way to get sick. Yeah, and let's see there it 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.680 was Atlanta to l A five hours, LA to Sydney 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.960 fourteen hours, Sydney to Perth another four or five hours. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:16.920 This was all in like one stretch. There was like 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.440 two hour layovers in between those three flights, and it 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:25.040 was it was about a thirty three hour experience getting there. Yeah, 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.480 and it's not the same on the way home. Yeah, 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.880 it was, and it was totally worth it too, I 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.320 would agree, although when we come back, we're gonna route 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.320 things a bit differently. Yeah. Yeah, Like when when we 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.440 landed in Sydney, I remember my first thought was, why 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:46.000 can't we just start here? Yeah? Uh, but there there's 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.440 no magic route, but there's probably a better one. Well, 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.200 we did the black Magic route if there, if there 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.360 is such a thing. Yeah, but boy, uh it was 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.800 a grind, but we had a great time. Um had 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.880 a couple of days off in between, which was I 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:03.080 don't know if I would have made it had it 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.000 not been for those days. Yeah. I think you're right. 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.440 I think has been too grueling to do like five 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.799 cities in five days. Yeah yeah, and those yeah, they 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:14.680 were cool down days too. You spent most of the 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.880 time in Melbourne. Actually south of Melbourne, I went to 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.960 the Mornington Peninsula. Well yeah, so you, me and I 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:22.880 were down there too. That's where we saw the penguins 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.160 marching from the ocean and gorgeous down there. That's like 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.320 their wine country, right, it's one of them. There's another 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:31.520 wine country the year of valley north of Melbourne, but 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.560 this is the one by the ocean. Yeah, so wine 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:39.880 country Slash the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen, and 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.000 you pretty much get happy chuck. Yeah, that's cool, man. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.600 And we spent another day in Sydney to which is 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.800 a pretty cool town. Um, just walking around the Opera 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:50.920 house alone is worth it. But there's a lot of 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.840 cool stuff to do there too. Yeah. I went zip lining, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:59.120 I went nice, I went to the beach, I went 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:00.960 to drink a lot of wine, went to a lot 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.440 of wineries. And it was that time of the year 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.400 in midweek. It was just sort of shut down. So 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.560 you know, my buddy Scotty came over. As you know, 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.280 I'm telling everyone else, but my buddy Scotty came over 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.160 and met me in Melbourne. So we felt like we 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.279 kept joking that we had rented the Mornington Peninsula because 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.000 there were never more than two people anywhere we went. 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.800 That's really And I'll bet the wine tastings they had 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.920 a heavy hand. Yeah. They basically was just like, let's 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.520 go sit on the porch, Fellas. They brought the bottle 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.840 out and we just sat around and drink with the 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.720 loveliest people on the face of the earth. Yeah, they 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:35.920 are some really lovely people. And not just in I'll 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.400 tell you. We did New Zealand too, which sure he knew. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:40.479 You mean, I've been to New Zealand before, so I 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:42.480 already had a pretty good idea of just how awesome 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.719 New Zealanders are. And we says they call themselves sometimes, um, 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.040 but I mean you got to experience the firsthand too. Yeah. 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.200 I mean everyone is just so nice and accommodating. Like 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.320 the whole no worries thing is it's not just something 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:01.279 they throw around like you feel it. It's four real. Yeah. Yeah, 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.400 it's pretty cool man to to just experience it is 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.560 is a very cool trip. Yeah, And even flying ten 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.280 times in eleven days, their airports in the t s A. 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.440 And just the way people are it really made it 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.200 pretty pretty great. Like I would have it would have 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.520 been a different experience flying ten times around the United 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.120 States and lemon days, I think like it would have 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:28.000 been awful, But it was great. We had a wonderful time. 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:33.040 We're definitely coming back. Uh. We both loved on koalas 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.080 and kangaroos. Yeah, It's like it doesn't get any better 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.599 than that. Oh man. So yeah, you guys will see 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.240 us again sometime in the new future. Will do another 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.640 tour for sure. And I'm now getting up at six 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:49.000 am tomorrow to watch another AUSI rules football final match. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:51.200 Oh yeah, you got into that, like for real? Huh 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.760 big time. That's cool man, it's great. Why not add 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.240 another sport to the pile. Well, I've lost a bunch 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.960 of sports. Oh yeah, I'm kind of down to NFL 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:07.240 and college football. No more NBA huh, very little, I see. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.680 It's very It's tough with the Hawks and I'll watch 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.120 a little bit of the finals maybe, but and then baseball. 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:15.120 You know, I follow the Braves a little bit, but 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.679 since they moved to the suburbs, I'm not as pumped. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.080 It's a little different, isn't it. Yeah, it's just not 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.240 as cool. I'm like you, Okay, well shoot, might as 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.880 well just add another one, Australian rules football. Yeah, well 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.880 cool man. Well, thank you for having us Australia and 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.160 New Zealand. We'll see you guys against you right, yes, 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:39.359 And what a great segue, because Australia happens to be 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.840 one of the countries in the world as far as 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.800 I know the only country in the world that utilizes 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.240 ranked choice voting. No, there's there's two others. But yeah, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:50.960 as far as I know, there's just the three in 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.240 Australia has used at the long What are the other two? 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.159 The other two are Malta in Ireland. Yeah, yeah, I 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:00.520 mean big countries. Okay, no disrespect to Ireland. Australia is 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.520 the only country that's also a continent that uses ranked 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.719 choice correcting. So um and yeah, like I said, they've 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.080 been using it from what I saw at least a century. 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:11.920 I couldn't find exactly when they started using it, but 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.480 I believe it's tied to Robert's Rules of Order, which 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.320 is a you know, a book of rules for order 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:21.640 that you can use if you're you know, voting on stuff, 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:23.880 or you have some sort of parliament or whatever you're 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.560 trying to do. It's the preferred way of voting, this 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.200 ranked choice voting. Right. Oh, they've been doing it for 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.640 that long yeah. Century. Oh I thought it would just 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.720 for the past five years. No, No, that's it's actually 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.800 it's coming around in the US again, even though it 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.960 was around before about a century ago. But in Australia 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.920 it's stuck for the last hundred or so years. Interesting, 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.360 I wonder I read a big article that felt like 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:54.280 they they felt a need to explain to people how 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:56.360 to do it five years ago. So maybe they forgot. 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:02.200 Oh really, you're freaking me out now. But here in 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:06.960 America we are not quite on board. So no, let 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:08.240 me give you a Let's let me give you a 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:14.400 little intro here, Charles. You're ready, yes, okay. So um, 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.760 back in the two thousand election, it was the presidential election. 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:23.400 It was a squeaker, you might say, between George W. 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:30.120 Bush and Al Gore. Yeah, apparently the the state of Florida. 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.520 So everyone knows about the electoral college. And if you 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.079 don't go listen to our episode about the electoral college. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.880 But you can win in the United States the popular vote, 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:42.880 meaning you got you got more people voted for you 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:47.200 than your opponent. But if your opponent wins some very 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:51.240 strategic states, states that have more electoral college votes, they 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:55.240 can actually win the presidency without winning the popular vote. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.160 It happened in two thousand and sixteen, happened in the 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.840 two thousand election, and every time time it does happen, 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.840 everybody just gets up in arms. And in my opinion, 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.560 rightfully so, because the will of the people has not 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.800 been served right like clearly the majority of people voted 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.880 for somebody else who is not the winner, and it 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.079 just really ticks everybody off in this country when that happens. 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.560 And in two thousand, it was so close that the 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.480 Supreme Court had to decide who was president and it 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.120 all came down to Florida. Florida had a lot of 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:31.280 electoral College votes and Bush and Gore were neck and neck, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.720 although Gore ended up winning the presidency as far as 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:39.680 popular voting went, Bush one because in Florida it came 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.320 down to he won forty eight point eight four seven 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.920 percent of the vote and al Gore won forty eight 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.880 point eight three eight percent of the vote. Okay, so 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.280 point zero zero nine percent of the vote made the 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.480 difference in the state of Florida, and with the electoral college, 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.880 if you win that state, you get all the electoral votes, 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:06.040 which pushed Bush over the edge and made him president. Right, 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.880 And a lot of people pointed to Ralph Nader, who, 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.120 as we all know and love from the Pinto's episode, 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:17.960 is a like a crusader for people, just a great guy. 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:20.600 But for since two thousand, a lot of people have 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:23.720 hated Ralph Nader because they said that he handed the 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.599 presidency to George W. Bush by acting as a spoiler. 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:32.960 That's something like ninety thousand people voted for Ralph Nader 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:37.160 in the two thousand election, sorry, almost nine thousand, and 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:41.600 since it was that close in Florida, those thousand votes 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.840 in Florida for Nader pushed Bush into the lead. Well, 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.560 that's just totally unfair because it turns out actually like 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.960 three and eight thousand registered Democrats actually voted for Bush. 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.960 So you could say that actually the Democratic Party didn't 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:58.080 run a very good campaign in Florida if that was 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:02.560 the case. But for ever, Ralph Naders born the brun 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.640 of everyone's hire because of this and the same we 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.680 see this in election after election after election, people calling 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.560 out people of similar views for voting for a third 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.640 party candidate, saying that they split the vote and and 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:20.600 handed them the office over to the their shared enemy. Right. 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:25.880 And one way to solve this problem, the spoiler um, 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:30.360 is by fixing what we call this plurality voting system 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:32.720 which we have, which is if you get more votes 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.920 than your opponent, even if it's not the majority of votes, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.920 you still win. It's called winners winner takes all elections, 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.360 and that's what we have right now, and it's actually 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:46.880 creating a lot of polarity and polarization in the United States. 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:53.480 That was impressive. Well thanks, Uh yeah, man, I mean 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.959 it's basically what you have is, at least in the 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:01.840 United States, is a situation where if you vote for 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:05.360 your favorite candidate, you can actually hand the election to 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.400 your least favorite candidate. And that's you know, like with 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.440 the Bernie your Busters in the last election, that's kind 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:14.200 of what happened that people that voted with their heart 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.439 that were like, I can't vote for Hillary Clinton, or 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.360 I don't want to vote for Hillary Clinton on gott 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.120 to vote for Bernie. Uh. Very clearly that's that you know, 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.040 that does swing an election. People should vote who they 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.280 want to vote for. Uh, but there is potentially a 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.760 better way. Uh. And we're talking about what Australia does 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.840 ranked choice voting, what some cities in the United States 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:41.240 do UM on small local elections. It's sort of seeing 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.360 a test run UM all around the country and little 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.640 markets to see what people think. UM. Sometimes people are 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.160 voting on whether or not they should try. Uh. This 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.079 style of voting. Sometimes that passes and then they actually 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:58.000 vote on candidates. But what ranked choice voting is is 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.360 when you fill out a you don't just say I 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.640 want to vote for this person. You say I want 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.120 to vote for this person, and then you know my 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.880 second choice would be this person, and my third choice 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.800 would be this person. Sometimes it stops there at three. 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.640 Sometimes it's capped, but sometimes you just rank all the 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:21.199 candidates in order of how much you want them in office. Right, so, um, 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:23.240 the whole point of ranking them is not just for 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.600 the satisfaction of putting the person you like the least 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.360 dead last right, maybe filling in the name or the 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:32.920 little bubble next to their name with a skull and crossbones. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.320 The point is it comes after the ballots are tallied. 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:42.600 If Chuck, everybody um voted for one single person, a 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.480 majority of people voted for one single person in the 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.920 first count, that person won if they had a majority 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:53.040 of the vote, say plus one single vote. Right, yes, 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.120 it's done. It's just like a normal election under that, 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:01.760 under that um that circumstance. But let's say one of 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.840 the candidates didn't get a majority of the vote. This 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.079 is when ranked choice voting really kicks in. And this 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.880 is another reason why it's also called an instant runoff vote, 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:16.319 because what happens is an instant runoff election from those ballots. 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.360 And I think we should take a break. Oh you 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:38.720 tail this, that's a cliffhanger. Yeah, right after this. Well, 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.720 now we're on the road, driving in your truck. Want 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.080 to learn a thing or two from Josh damp chuck 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:54.040 it stuff you should know? All right, all right, everybody, 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.960 If you remember we were talking about don't ranked choice voting, 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.520 You list out your candidates in order preference, and then 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.360 after you hand your ballot in, they just kind of 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.520 work from the bottom up almost and start striking people 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:11.440 out until they get to someone that has a majority. Yeah, 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.480 And it's really that simple. It really is like if 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.760 you if you think too hard on it, you can overcomplicated. 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.520 It's actually pretty easy. And if like what we're going 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.840 to explain doesn't quite make sense, go onto the web 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.600 and watch there's a couple of minute and a half 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:29.440 long videos that do a really good job of explaining 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.200 and using visuals. I think once by k q E 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.600 d out in San Francisco and others by Minnesota Public 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:40.320 Radio and both Minneapolis and San Francisco use ranked choice voting. Um, 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.840 so go watch those videos and you will totally get it. 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.280 But again, if you have a let's say you have 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:49.600 candidate A, B, C, and D, and you cast your 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.600 ballot and you like you like them in that order, 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.600 Canada as your top choice candidate beats your second choice 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.560 candidate SEES three and D is fourth. Right, Okay, easy enough, 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:03.960 so far right, Chuck, Yes, okay. So um, let's say 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.600 that after all the tallies are are are all the 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:12.320 ballots are tallied, your guy Canada Day just didn't make 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:16.520 the cut. He he came in dead last. Your your 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.080 ballot doesn't get thrown away, It gets set to the 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.200 side because whatever all the people who voted for Canada 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.520 A chose for a second, those votes get distributed to 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.320 those candidates in this next round. Yeah, exactly, And that 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.360 is how you end up with a majority. So you 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.120 you what you won't wind up is a situation like 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.840 you had with the current governor of Maine where he 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.320 won the election with thirty eight percent of the vote, 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.760 And like, there's something wrong with your voting system if 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.520 only thirty eight percent of the people in a in 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.200 a in a voting pool like this candidate enough and 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.480 they end up winning. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that's 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.360 the big problem that everybody points to with our current 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.760 plurality system is you could if there's three candidates, you 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:05.040 can win with thirty percent of the vote, which means 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.119 sixty six percent of the people who voted didn't vote 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.080 for you. They voted for somebody other than you. And 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.480 the other part of the thing that I've seen from 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.359 research in this, Chuck is that when when it's a 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.520 winner takes takes all kind of election, like a plurality 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:25.400 election like we have, that seems to um incentivize incentivized 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.840 candidates to be more polarizing because what they're trying to 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.919 do is energize their base and get their base out, 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.000 but they have no incentive whatsoever to reach out across 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.399 the aisle to other voters. Um, all they're doing is 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.959 getting their base charged up to get out and vote 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.399 frequently about issues that don't really mean anything. They're just 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:49.200 kind of like, um, I'm not quite sure what the 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:53.520 term is for him, but nonsensical issues that don't really 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.720 mean anything. They just tick everybody off. That kind of 0:17:56.720 --> 0:18:00.760 polarization comes from this plurality thing and one of the 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.240 ways that UM or one of the reasons so many 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.840 people are pointing to rank choice voting as a as 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.159 a UM as a kind of a way to solve 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.520 this is because it does the opposite. It incentivizes people 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.639 to reach out to as many voters as possible because 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.000 you want to end up as their number two choice. Yeah. 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.200 I mean it's an interesting argument. Um In theory, it 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:28.479 would push politicians towards the center. Uh. However, a lot 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.879 of people don't want centrist politicians, and you know, as 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:33.920 we've seen in recent years, people there are a lot 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.360 of people that are very hard right and very hard 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.560 left that I imagine would reject this kind of voting 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.000 because they don't want to go towards the center. Um. 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.320 Although right now, you know, independence are largely ignored, third 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.760 party candidates are largely ignored, so they would probably embrace 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:54.080 something like this. Uh. But again, I mean, we had 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.200 a situation in Kansas where the gubernatorial primary was decided 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.000 by less than two hundred votes, So that meant that 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:06.960 fifty votes basically didn't count. I mean, they counted, and 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:09.240 that people got to to speak their mind and vote 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.040 their conscience, But fifty two those fifty people, if you 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:15.680 pulled them, they would probably say, well, you know what, 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.000 I might like a second chance to vote then on 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.720 these two jerks. That was decided by lesson two votes, 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.119 right right. And that's where ranked choice voting comes in, 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.680 because if you, if you you know, vote your conscience, 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:29.639 which I think it sounds like both of us agree, 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:33.000 you totally should. And I think even further, you should 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.560 not deride people who vote their conscience. It's a pretty 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:41.080 terrible thing to do. Um. But if if you share 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:45.679 similar views um with another candidate, they might be your 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:47.680 second choice. You might not like them, maybe they're the 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.440 establishment candidate and you're more like the uh, the more 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:55.639 progressive or more far right candidate. You like that person first, 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.800 but you're also saying, you know, this person might have 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:00.480 a better shot, so I'm gonn to make sure that 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.479 they're my number two rather than the other person. And 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.000 so what you're doing then is, rather than the vote 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.160 being split like in a winner takes all, if if 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:14.560 your person, your third party candidate doesn't win that first round, um, 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.120 the your votes are going to go to that other 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.680 more like minded person. So rather than splitting the vote, 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:22.960 you're actually going and helping UH to bowl straight if 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:28.280 your candidate of choice doesn't make it to the second round. Right, Obviously, 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.439 you need at least three candidates for something like this 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.840 to happen, which doesn't always happen, so you can't always 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.800 use this this kind of voting. UH. And Maine, the 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.280 state of Maine is an interesting well, it's interesting in 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.000 a lot of ways because manners are weird and they 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:47.640 know that. Um, they're very independent and just sort of 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:50.959 a state into themselves in a lot of ways. So 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.760 what you've had here, nine of the past eleven governors 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:56.440 have been elected with less than fifty of the vote. 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:59.600 Nine of the past eleven, which is amazing, five of 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.840 those with less and as I mentioned earlier, the current governor, 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.280 Paul Lapage or la Page UH, he won with thirty 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:12.199 eight percent, and as of hours ago, as as of 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:15.920 this recording, he just vetoed a bill for this kind 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.680 of voting to continue on his way out the door. Basically, 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:20.880 I saw that there was like there's been a real 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:25.200 push in Maine against this too, and there's a lot 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.320 of allegations that it's basically the status quo is worried 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.040 that they're not going to be able to get enough 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:33.280 centrist people to vote for them, and so they're gonna 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:37.399 start losing elections rather than these winner polarized winner takes 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:41.679 all um contests that they can win by energizing the 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.360 base into a frenzy. So pushed by politicians, I guess right, 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.639 pushed by incumbent politicians. No less, Yeah, because the people 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.200 voted for it. They had a record turnout, apparently, because 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:54.840 one of the worries is is that more complicated voting 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:59.399 in theory leads to uh, people being less interested in voting, 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:02.960 like this sort of sadly American thing where you have 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:07.040 to make voting super easy and super dumb uh or 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.160 dumbed down at least, and if it's just confusing, people 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.080 want to understand it and they won't know what to do, 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:14.240 so they may not even vote. But at least in 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:16.480 Maine they had a record turnout, and a lot of 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:18.960 people think it was because they moved to rank choice voting. 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:22.280 And I saw also a two thousand and fourteen study 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.919 from the University of Missouri that um they looked at 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:29.800 like seventies six elections or seventy nine elections in twenty 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:33.119 six cities that used ranked choice voting, and they found 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.000 that overall there was like a ten percent higher turnout 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:40.520 than in elections that hadn't used ranked choice voting UM, 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:43.159 and that that definitely flies in the face of one 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.240 of the great criticisms of ranked choice voting that it's 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:50.600 way more difficult than regular voting. Like you were saying, right, 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.520 The thing is is it's not that much more difficult. 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:58.520 It's really pretty easy and the average person can figure 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.440 it out. What I think it calls for more though 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:06.520 Chuck is a more informed voter, you know what I mean. Like, 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:08.480 you can't just scantron it. You can't just make a 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:10.800