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> to get Greens on the ballot to divide the left vote and get a Republican in office If people are serious about voting reform (and they should be) then this "

> to get Greens on the ballot to divide the left vote and get a Republican in office If people are serious about voting reform (and they should be) then this "spoiler effect" can be weaponized: start a grassroots campaign to vote third party until the Democrats support changing the voting system at the state level (and vote in primaries for Democrats who support this change). This may lead to few tight state races being lost, but that means that only a small percentage of the population would be enough to get the Democratic Party officials to take notice. To make the signal even more clear, the third party chosen should be one that focuses as narrowly as possible on voting reform, such as the Alliance Party[0], which may also encourage some disgruntled Republicans to temporarily lend their votes, whereas they would be more reluctant to support the Green Party, for example. Of course there is a danger that voting reform would get portrayed as a pro-Democrat policy (if it isn't already), but once enough Republicans (in majority Democrat states) have experience casting their ballot in a more expressive and representative system, it will be harder for Republicans in other states to oppose it. [0] https://www.theallianceparty.com/political_reform https://www.theallianceparty.com/political_reform

godelski 5y ago
To be honest, a lot of this is already happening and I don't think the Democrats care. When voter turnout is high, Democrats win hands down. When voter turnout is low, Republicans win. But the kicker is that both parties thrive when they are losing. This may often be counter intuitive to many people but I think many have bad priors when modeling the game that politicians are playing.
- not2b 5y ago
  Actually, Democrats are generally in favor of instant runoff voting, and many more liberal places have enacted it. But yes, there are a lot of professional campaign consultants who have the system wired that they profit whether they win or lose, and many of those work for Democrats.
  - godelski 5y ago
    > Democrats are generally in favor To be clear are we talking about the politicians or the people? The people, yes. Politicians I'm not so sure about. Also I'd encourage you to read my other comment which addresses ordinal voting (like IRV) and the issues with them. It might be why the party likes it (still having vote splitting in the primaries).
michaelmrose 5y ago
We are looking at a republican party the majority of which would happily end democracy to end the threat of them ever being tossed out again. Tipping the scales in their direction at this critical juncture to motivate Democrats seems like a spectacularly bad idea. Seems like it would be a better and safer idea to to work towards the same goal using primaries to tilt already democratic districts in the direction of reformers.

godelski 5y ago

To be honest, a lot of this is already happening and I don't think the Democrats care. When voter turnout is high, Democrats win hands down. When voter turnout is low, Republicans win. But the kicker is that both parties thrive when they are losing. This may often be counter intuitive to many people but I think many have bad priors when modeling the game that politicians are playing.

not2b 5y ago
Actually, Democrats are generally in favor of instant runoff voting, and many more liberal places have enacted it. But yes, there are a lot of professional campaign consultants who have the system wired that they profit whether they win or lose, and many of those work for Democrats.
- godelski 5y ago
  > Democrats are generally in favor To be clear are we talking about the politicians or the people? The people, yes. Politicians I'm not so sure about. Also I'd encourage you to read my other comment which addresses ordinal voting (like IRV) and the issues with them. It might be why the party likes it (still having vote splitting in the primaries).

michaelmrose 5y ago

We are looking at a republican party the majority of which would happily end democracy to end the threat of them ever being tossed out again. Tipping the scales in their direction at this critical juncture to motivate Democrats seems like a spectacularly bad idea. Seems like it would be a better and safer idea to to work towards the same goal using primaries to tilt already democratic districts in the direction of reformers.