Tired of voting for the lesser of two evils? Is an election where most people’s preferred candidate loses a good thing? The number of candidates vying for the U.S. presidency means most voters will likely end up disappointed because their preferred candidate is eliminated. Ranked-choice voting, or RCV, could help fix that problem. Voters rank the candidates in the order of their preference. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the second-choice candidate on those ballots now receives that vote. The elimination continues until one candidate has a majority.

San Francisco has used RCV in local elections since 2006, and the system decided a 2018 congressional election in Maine. Towns that use RCV tend to have better voter turnout.

Meanwhile, keep looking for how presidential candidates address the obscenely bloated military budget. These funds could be better used to meet human need and save our planet. According to a 2017 Brown University study, federal spending on health care, education, clean energy and infrastructure creates more jobs, dollar for dollar, than military spending.

Harold A. Penner
Akron, Pa.