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[quote=Anonymous]I am speaking from Montgomery County, Maryland, but I think this applies elsewhere. Whatever happens on November 6th, even if I personally find the results favorable, this whole election cycle shows that we have a broken system. 
We are ending up with undesriable results because a largely unpopular candidate can solidify a base to win with a plurality as more palatable candidates split the vote. This is what got Trump the GOP nomination in 2016.

I say this and [b]I voted for Marc Elrich for County Executive in the primary.[/b] I actually like Marc, I admire his insightfulness and responsiveness and think he was the most knowledgeable on issues, and I do think that the reasons why people don't like him are based on misleading information - but that is neither here nor there. The point is, he narrowly won a plurality with a small minority of voters. I would have liked it if he won more convincingly by winning over a majority of voters against the smear campaign, but that is not my point here. Informed or not, voters would be better served to nominate someone more could agree upon.

David Blair might have won a ranked choice primary election, and we wouldn't be in this mess we have now. If Floreen wins, she did it by gaming the system and taking advantage of the divided anti-Elrich vote. If Ficker wins, then we really have a worst-case scenario of the candidate with the most broadly negative view prevailing over a split, non-lunatic vote. I would wager that most would rather have Blair than Floreen, or certainly Ficker.

Anyway, not to make this yet another thread about the Montgomery County election, as we need to reform our voting system as a whole. The Democrats probably could have put up a better candidate than Jealous if there were fewer in the primary. Not sure about the Virginia side of things, but it seems like rank choice would be more fair as a whole.

Top-two/jungle primaries/runoff elections could be another solution but I still think it would be flawed, though not as flawed as our current system.

What say the rest of you? Any other potential solutions? Approval voting is another one, but from what I read it sounded way too complicated and tedious for people going to the polls and probably wouldn't be taken full advantage. [/quote]

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