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Ranked choice voting is no different from runoffs

Here in Georgia, the winner has to get a majority - 50% plus one vote. In the election for Senator last Tuesday, we had three candidates - Raphael Warnock (D), Herschel Walker (R), and Chase Oliver (Libertarian). Warnock won a plurality (the most votes) but didn't hit 50%; he is at 49.4%. Walker is at 48.5%, and Oliver came in third with 2.1%. A runoff will be held on Dec. 6 between Warnock and Walker, the top two finishers.

A Libertarian voter will have three choices - vote for Warnock, vote for Walker, or don't vote at all. This is no different from their options in a ranked-choice ballot; it's just slower. With a ranked-choice ballot, last Tuesday, a Libertarian would have voted for Oliver first, either Warnock, Walker, or nobody second, and the same choices third. The "runoff" would have happened automatically on Tuesday instead of making everyone come back a month later to do what they could have done already.

If Georgia elected its Senator with a plurality, then ranked-choice voting wouldn't work because Warnock would have won on the first ballot - but we don't elect Senators that way. So since we're going to have a runoff anyway, I don't see how ranked-choice voting would be any different. It's why ranked-choice is sometimes called "instant runoff voting" - they're the same thing.
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I guess an x Football Player is just as qualified for Senator in Georgia as a man who was already a Junior US Senator. A compulsive liar vs a Christian Pastor.
@Pitchblue Yep. They don’t care. Walker will be a reliable vote for Mitch McConnell’s agenda.
@LeopoldBloom To the Republicans he epitomizes what they see as a Dumb N. He's been told what to do since he first started football as a kid. What time to go to bed, everything. Then there's the fact that Hershal is mentally ill. The excessive lies should be all people need to know about Hershal but just because he runs on antiabortion but has paid for a few himself doesn't get that message across to Georgian voters. He's got the R.
@Pitchblue Yep. Stupid, violent, a bunch of abandoned kids he doesn't know about, good at sports, and will do what he's told without complaining.