There’s a Simple Solution to the So-called “Spoiler” Problem, But Don’t Expect the Democrats to Solve It
www.counterpunch.org
As soon as Cornel West announced that he is entering the 2024 presidential race as a Green Party candidate, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable calls of “spoiler” began coming from all the usual suspects. Establishment Democrats, naturally, have been at the forefront of this predictable scaremongering. Former Obama administration advisor David Axelrod, for instance, stated: “I don’t know why alarm bells aren’t going off now, and they should be at a steady drumbeat from now until the election.”

{ But all of this is not the point. Because there is a simple solution to resolve this issue and eliminate the spoiler effect entirely, which the Democrats have seemingly never mentioned, let alone tried to enact. The solution is to abolish the electoral college and move toward a ranked-choice popular vote. This would mean that people who want to put Green as their first choice could then (if, unlike me, they would want to) put the Democrat as their second choice. Under ranked-choice voting, there are several rounds of vote counting. If no candidate gets over 50% of the popular vote, then candidates lower down the vote count are eliminated and their votes get added to the tally of their second choice. }