Now is the Time for Independents to Stop Complaining and Take Action

In Nevada, ranked choice voting (RCV) and open primaries (OP) are on the ballot in the form of ballot question no. 3 in the November 2024 election. I’ve written extensively about these bad ideas several times in the past year as a Policy Fellow of the Nevada Policy think tank. The people who support them tell me that these changes to voting rules will be more likely to elect moderate candidates and to include the choices of the independent voters who don’t currently have a voice.

Addressing the first point, in a democratic system, the candidate should be the one that the people want. If the people want “extremist” candidates, then it’s not up to some social scientists, wealthy elites, incumbent politicians, nonprofit organizations, or anyone else to purposely manipulate the vote using some “fairer” algorithm. In fact, if you read the academic studies on voting rules, none of the “experts” can actually agree on what constitutes a “fair” algorithm. The only thing that is really fair is one vote for each person. Period. And if the majority of voting Americans want a candidate that others label as extremist? Well, that’s the whole point of democracy.