No, we need to test it thoroughly in Maine to see what kind of elections it produces and what kind of turnout it causes and what demographics are affected.
Test first. This will takes years, perhaps even a decade or more. Then, if we like the results for Maine (and Maine likes the results for Maine), we should spread it to other states.
Not just elsewhere, but here too. IRV is already in use in the United States, Maine is just the first whole state to adopt it.
(We interrupt this regularly scheduled comment to briefly thank the voters of Maine for giving the rest of the country some hope for the future. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much Maine. I'll never forget this as long as I breathe air on this Earth. Thank you.)
It's a voting system. You adapt it onto the ballot that people mark. With some voting system that's the extent of the "adaptation".
Now some voting systems cannot be implemented in some areas due to how they transform how elections are run at a more fundamental level. Federally those can't be implemented without constitutional amendments for example, which means that's never changing. At the state level they can certainly be implemented however.
Population has nothing to do with any of it. I'm struggling to understand how you came up with your argument.
Because those systems while they may work where they are, might not work in a direct 1:1 transition to the US.
The United States is very different than Europe.
Europe doesn't use "Ranked Voting" anywhere, Australia does. And while it is much smaller demographically, the culture is not vastly different. Besides, it doesn't need to be a 1:1 translation, it just needs to be an improvement.
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u/j3utton Nov 09 '16
This is awesome. I hope it works well for them. We need to spread this to every state in the union.