Here's a reform that could fundamentally improve American elections, and it doesn't require a constitutional amendment, a revolution, or even a new law at the federal level. It's already working in multiple states. It's called ranked choice voting, and it might be the single most common-sense election reform available.
The concept is simple. Instead of picking one candidate, you rank them in order of preference — first choice, second choice, third choice. If your first choice gets eliminated (by having the fewest votes), your vote transfers to your second choice. This continues until one candidate has a majority.
Why does this matter? Because it solves several problems that plague our current system.
First, it eliminates the spoiler effect. Right now, the biggest obstacle to third-party and independent candidates isn't that people don't like them — it's that people are afraid voting for them will "waste" their vote or help the candidate they like least. Ranked choice voting removes that fear entirely. You can rank the independent candidate first and the major-party candidate you prefer second, knowing that if your first choice doesn't win, your vote still counts.
Second, it rewards candidates with broad appeal. In our current system, you can win with a plurality — meaning you don't even need a majority. Candidates win with 35% or 40% of the vote all the time, especially in crowded primaries. Under ranked choice voting, you need to be at least acceptable to a majority of voters, which means candidates have an incentive to appeal beyond their base and build broader coalitions.
Third, it reduces negative campaigning. When candidates need second-choice votes from their opponents' supporters, they can't afford to be vicious. Research from FairVote shows that ranked choice voting elections see measurably less negative campaigning because alienating another candidate's voters means losing potential second-choice support.
This isn't theory. It's already happening. Maine has used ranked choice voting in federal elections since 2018, and more than 74% of voters in exit polls said ranking their choices was easy. Alaska adopted a top-four primary with ranked choice general election system, and despite efforts to repeal it, voters chose to keep it. Studies comparing ranked choice voting to traditional plurality voting found that ranked choice voting picked strong, broadly supported candidates up to 18 times more frequently, and plurality voting was 50% more likely to elect an extreme candidate.
For a party like ours — a third party that believes the majority of Americans are in the middle and underserved by both sides — ranked choice voting is transformative. It lets people vote their actual preference without strategic calculation. It breaks the "lesser of two evils" trap that keeps the two-party duopoly in power. And it does all of this without any structural change to the Constitution or the basic mechanics of American elections.
We're adding ranked choice voting to our government reform platform because it's the kind of practical, achievable reform that makes the system work better for everyone. Not just for third parties — for every voter who's ever felt trapped by a ballot that didn't represent them.
Read our updated government accountability platform: commonsenseforamerica.org/platform/government-accountability