I protest voted one year because I hated the candidates. That was the year Trump got elected. I'm never doing that again. Lina's well worth supporting in the next few elections, but the real options this year are already set. Everything else is equivalent to not voting at all.

[–] Instigate@aussie.zone 16 points 6 months ago (4 children)

I’m often torn when talking about how to vote in US elections because you guys have to balance ideology with the need to be pragmatic far more due to the First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system. The only way that Democrats get a serious signal that they need to move left is by voting for far-left candidates, even those who aren’t on the ballot, but that runs the risk of handing the election to the Republicans.

Y’all seriously need some Ranked Choice (RC) voting. I have never once voted for a major party number 1 in any election I’ve participated in, and that’s never caused my vote to be ‘wasted’ like it can be under FPTP. Mandatory voting would really help too - it would expose the fact that Republicans only make up around 30% of all people and they’d never be able to govern outside a coalition ever again.

I firmly believe that if the US got rid of the primary elections and implemented both RC and mandatory voting, we’d be nearing the end of Bernie Sanders’ second term right now.

[–] Rinox@feddit.it 8 points 6 months ago

It's not that it runs the risk, it's a guarantee. There's no situation in which another more leftist party gaining a significant number of votes doesn't mean handing the presidency over to the republican party. Fptp is a really bad system.

[–] Onihikage@beehaw.org 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Y’all seriously need some Ranked Choice (RC) voting.

I really would like nothing more than to get some tasty, tasty STAR voting up in this mess we call a democracy.

[–] HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It's always discouraging to me that when the topic of alternate voting methods comes up, RCV is always mentioned as the way to go. It seems to be the alternative voting method most people are familiar with.

RCV has it's problems and there are demonstrably better voting systems such as you said STAR voting.

[–] HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

STAR voting, or ranked robin are possibilities as well. RCV has it's problems. https://www.equal.vote/star_vs_rcv

If you want ranking Ranked Robin is better than RCV https://www.equal.vote/ranked_robin

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 months ago

STAR or ranked choice voting wouldn't really fix the big issue. The issue is that we live in a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, not that we don't have enough bourgeois parties able to compete.

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 2 points 6 months ago

Blaming voters for the results of a liberal democracy is like blaming consumers who don't recycle their plastic for climate change.