Advocates: Ranked choice voting would make Illinois primaries less nasty

| David Daley, Rachel Hutchinson | Chicago Tribune |

In Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, state Rep. La Shawn Ford won the all-important Democratic primary with just 24% of the vote. In the 9th, Daniel Biss won with 29%. In the 8th, Melissa Bean won with 32%.

These results don’t tell us what most Democratic voters want. Here’s what we do know: These candidates emerged from bruising campaigns dominated by gamesmanship, attack ads and outside spending. The vast majority of their own party preferred another candidate — no mark on these winners, but a simple math problem in races with so many candidates.

More choices are better

The good news is that it’s possible to offer voters lots of choices and produce a winner most preferred by the most people — in a way that’s good for voters, candidates and parties. Illinois should join a growing number of states and localities nationwide and adopt ranked choice voting for primaries.

Most everyone agrees that more choices are better than fewer choices and that elections should be won by a majority. But as the Illinois results show, you usually can’t have both.

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