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On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti

Could ranked-choice voting take the poison out of politics?

On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti

WBUR

News, On Point, Daily, Npr, Talk Show

4.33.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alaska and Maine use ranked choice voting in elections. Four other states could soon join them. We learn why more states are considering ranked-choice voting.

About:

On Point is WBUR’s award-winning, daily public radio show and podcast. Every weekday, host Meghna Chakrabarti leads provocative conversations that help make sense of the world.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Funding for this podcast comes from Math Works, creators of Mat Lab and Simulink software,

0:06.0

accelerating the pace of engineering and science. Learn more at Math Works.

0:11.0

com. Work's dot com. This is on point. I'm Meghna Chakrabardi. Ranked choice voting.

0:22.0

Alaska and Maine already used the system in presidential

0:25.4

primaries. We voted it in after a very right-wing Republican won with only 38 percent of the vote in our blue state. If you vote red and live in a red state, you're going to love it.

0:40.0

If you vote red and live in a blue state, you may hate it.

0:44.0

And if you vote blue and live in a red state, you will hate it.

0:49.0

If you live in a purple state, it's very unpredictable. If you can keep track of the colors, on point

0:55.8

listener E. Fullerton in Maine ends up saying she's very happy with ranked

1:01.0

choice voting and here's Mike Coombi in Anchorage, Alaska.

1:05.0

Having voted in elections for almost 50 years here in Alaska,

1:10.0

I've watched as the party extremes are the ones who were nominated and those are the choices that we get in the general election.

1:18.0

In 2022, my first choice won in one race and my second choice one in the other race.

1:25.4

But in both races, extreme candidates were eliminated.

1:29.0

Rank choice voting allowed voters in Alaska to choose whether they preferred the extremes or not.

1:37.8

And as a result, it was a very refreshing change.

1:41.8

Well now, at least four other states, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, and Idaho, plus Washington, D.C. are

1:49.8

considering switching their election systems to ranked choice voting.

1:54.5

So today we want to look at what's behind that push and could ranked choice voting truly

1:59.2

take some of the poison out of US politics.

2:03.5

Now I know most of you listening out there probably want us to start with what exactly

2:07.1

is ranked choice voting and how does it work.

...

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