Some people argue that ranked choice voting disenfranchises voters who voted for lower-ranking candidates.
So by that logic, if you vote for someone in a two-person race and your candidate loses, do you have an “exhausted ballot” and were you “disenfranchised?”
If there were three candidates and you voted for the third-place candidate, do you have an “exhausted ballot” and were you “disenfranchised?”
Now consider, if you voted for the third-place candidate, but ranked the second-place candidate as your second choice, so that when your vote was added to the original votes of the second-place candidate, the (formerly) second-place candidate won. Did you have an “exhausted ballot” and were you “disenfranchised”?
What about those who voted for the formerly firstplace candidate, who then lost? Did they have “exhausted ballots” and were they “disenfranchised?”
In the end, someone with majority support won, at least among those who chose to express their preferences. Was that fair or unfair?
— Rick Wicks
Anchorage
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