136
Working Families bet on 2026 as the right time for a third US party after a wave of wins
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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politics
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I'd personally rather approval or star voting, since ranked choice can create voter apathy through too many candidates (look up the voter response to portland oregons's last election for an example). Having to pick a unique rank for everyone is kind of arbitrary imo, but honestly anything is better than what we have
Australia has ranked choice voting but to deal with the inevitable cavalcade of candidates, the process and parties are prepared and offer cheat sheets for their ideologically aligned supporters who are lazy, apathetic or conscientious but less than ideally informed. A candidate and/or their party (there are many, many minority parties) will hand out “How to vote” pamphlets which basically explains to supporters who wish to vote for them, how they recommend ranking the other parties (or candidates for Independents) in the race. In the AUS version of the House of Reps they do this per candidate (many fewer options).
For the senate race with many times more candidates, they have a split on the voting form with a line drawn between the top and bottom of the ballot. Above the line the parties are listed and below the line, each candidate from each party is listed. States all get 12 senators with half up for election each cycle. Ie in an election 6 senators per state are being chosen. There may be 10 or 12 or more columns to choose from but since only 6 senators are getting elected, in order to cast a vote one can number at least 6 parties in order of preference ABOVE the line, or BELOW the line, you may select at least 12 of the potentially dozens of candidates.
Basically it helps your average Joe Blow navigate the process if they have a general alignment with at least one of the parties, or often people find themselves ranking backwards based on the lesser of evils.
This link explains the senate ballot way better than I do. https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/your-questions-on-notice/questions/how-are-senate-below-the-line-votes-directed-what-if-none-of-a-voters-12-preferences-gets-a-quota