Thomas C. Bowen: Why ranked choice is the best cure for gerrymandering

Chicago Tribune

a day ago

The issue of partisan gerrymandering is burning white hot right now as President Donald Trump has forced Texas Republicans to attempt a redraw of their state maps a second time since the decennial redistricting process fashioned new maps in 2022. California, our own Illinois, and other states across the country have threatened retaliation for this blatant attempt at a congressional power grab.
According to the Tribune's reporting last week, some civic leaders in Chicago believe the answer to what ails our country is an independent map commission that will draw lines without data connected to partisanship.
Ten years ago, they proposed this same thing and 10 years ago I wrote in these very pages that independently drawn maps will have no effect on the political fissures we face in Illinois and across our country today.
This is still the case. Independent maps won't fix things. Let me propose something that will actually change things for the better.
We should end low-turnout, single-party primaries as we know them today and give voters even more choices for public office.
Let me explain why.
There is an ever-increasing amount of anger and inflammatory rhetoric that social media company algorithms constantly stoke. It's gotten so bad that surveys show 80% of partisans believe the agenda of the other party 'poses a threat that, if not stopped, will destroy America as we know it,' a 2022 NBC poll said. This partisan food fight is wildly disconnected from the vast majority of our neighbors and communities.
Competitive elections using our primary nominating system do nothing to change this dynamic. Few if any competitive elections in the modern era have calmed the frayed nerves and fiery rhetoric of our politics. No new 'star' of politics on the left or right has been defeated or quieted by political allies of theirs who don't practice their brand of reality TV politics.
In fact, on the Republican side, instead of fighting back against the loudest, most extreme MAGA base stoked by Trump, a plethora of Republican incumbents retired!
Why? Because of the . The voters who turn out in primaries are extremely ideological and make up a small portion of all available voters. Those primary voters often prefer leaders who fight on the issues instead of workhorses and compromisers who appeal to big swaths of voters in general elections. Primary elections usually feature multiple candidates, and in our modern age, political parties are too weak to winnow them down. Therefore, an extreme, angry group of voters often determines winners with sometimes only 20% or 30% percent of the vote.
The solution is to stop letting political primaries dramatically winnow the list of candidates running in general elections. We need more choices, not fewer. We need to put forward more Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, Greens, Conservatives, Progressives, MAGAs, etc.
Alaska has shown America the right way to solve this problem. They have a novel electoral system where four candidates are nominated by all of the voters who wish to participate in the primary process. Those four candidates in their system — but it could be five if we so choose — face each other in the general election and are chosen by a ranked choice ballot.
It's important to understand the powerful incentive this system creates and the effect it has on the tenor of the election. Instead of prioritizing a smaller, angrier group of voters to win a primary, the broader coalition of voters not attached to partisan politics becomes the focus. A key dynamic is that you still want to be in the good graces of as many voters as possible even if you're not their first choice.
Democracy requires 50% plus one to determine the winner. One can use a ranked choice ballot, approval voting or runoff elections as a final step. This prioritizes second choice votes or endorsements from previous foes and incentivizes more cross-party coalitions.
Think of it as a parliamentary government formation, just before the votes are cast.
The other wonderful benefit of a system like this is it doesn't usually need constitutional amendments or supermajorities of legislatures to pass. Just a simple majority to change election rules.
I'll close this with a little secret from those of us who work in Democratic or Republican politics: We dislike primary elections just as much as the rest of you do.
We'd rather fight it out with the voters on the vast differences that separate the major parties as opposed to the minuscule ones that separate us within our own parties. Plus, like everyone yelling at each other over Thanksgiving dinner, the intrafamily food fights always linger.
So, let's stop fighting about maps. That is a sophomoric understanding of the problems that vex us in politics. Let's end the primaries as we know them and make some real change.