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The purpose of Ranked Choice Voting is to give people a second input if the election does not produce a first choice majority winner, to insure that a majority got their first or second choice counted in the elections. The current system allows the election of a candidate who does not have a majority of support
How does it work? It works in elections when there are 3 or more
candidates competing. If the
winner does not get a majority of the vote, the second choice votes are
essentially added to the first choice votes of each remaining candidate
after eliminating the candidate with the fewest votes (like a runoff
election with one less candidate), so the
election is determined by how many first or second choice votes each
candidates get, but only if that number is a majority.
If Bernie ran and the votes between Hillary and Bernie were a majority, Trump would have been eliminated, and his voters second choice candidate votes, if any, for Hillary and Bernie would be given to Hillary and Bernie respectively. The election would be determined by the total first choice votes and, with Trump eliminated, the Trump second choice votes for Hillary and Bernie. The election would go to the majority of these vote combinations. With Trump out the picture, assuming most of Trump's voters' second choice were for Bernie and Hillary vs Bernie was close, Bernie would take the "instant runoff" as it is sometimes called. In truth, the process above would be run after the "fringe" candidate second choice votes had been similarly been distributed. If there were a lot of Trump second choice votes among these candidates, Trump could have achieved a majority prior to getting to the final run-off.
The purpose of Ranked Choice Voting is to give people a second input if the election does not produce a first choice majority winner, to insure that a majority got their first or second choice counted in the elections. The current system allows the election of a candidate who does not have a majority of support