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The GOP totally missed the lesson of Sarah Palin’s ranked choice loss (274 hits)

The GOP totally missed the lesson of Sarah Palin’s ranked choice loss
Opinion by Arick Wierson -

Republicans have been up in arms about “jungle primaries,” or nonpartisan open primaries, and ranked choice voting, or RCV, systems that eschew traditional election formats. Such is the rage that in both Tennessee and Florida, laws have been enacted that essentially forbid any jurisdiction from experimenting with ranked choice voting in any format. And after Democrat Mary Peltola’s surprising victory in Alaska’s special U.S. House election last week to fill the vacant seat of longtime Republican Rep. Don Young, who died in March, rallying cries against RCV have reached a fever pitch. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who has long opposed RCV, even called the format “a scam“ in a tweet following the results.

But the GOP — particularly the more traditional wing of the party that is alarmed at the divisive nature of the general election candidates who emerge out of Republican primary contests — shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss such formats. More open primaries and ranked choice voting formats might be the tools the GOP needs to regain control of the party from the MAGA-fueled fringe element that seems to be driving it off the cliff’s edge.

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