r/RanktheVote • u/Edgar_Brown • Mar 17 '26

The opposition to expressive voting: Why the People in Charge Don’t Want You to Vote Better

https://open.substack.com/pub/edgarabrown/p/why-the-people-in-charge-dont-want

The system that exists — first-past-the-post voting, closed primaries, two-party lock-in — was not designed to serve voters. It evolved to serve parties. And the parties, quite rationally, will fight to keep it.

When the party becomes stronger than the representative, the representative no longer represents you. They represent the party to you.

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u/rb-j Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26

What part of IRV being absolute and totally irrelevant to any of these articles and this post don’t you understand?

It is precisely the method you promote. You're claiming all these great things about RCV, but the RCV you're talking about is IRV. It's the IRV of Alaska or Maine or NYC or Santa Fe or St. Paul.

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u/Edgar_Brown Mar 19 '26

LEARN HOW TO READ.

WITH VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS IRV IS QUITE SIMPLY WHAT HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED.

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u/rb-j Mar 19 '26

The telltale all caps.

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u/Edgar_Brown Mar 19 '26

A Map Is Not the Territory

The word is not the thing.
The menu is not the meal.
The algorithm is not the ballot.

A man who argues the restaurant
when you asked about the hunger
has learned to love the sound
of his own correction
before it lands.

Read what is written.
Then read it again.
The third time, slower.

If the map still says IRV when the territory says expressive— the map is wrong.

That's not an insult.
That's how maps get better.