Voting Needs an Upgrade

The recall demonstrated exactly why we need a better voting system. In a crowded race or a race with similar candidates first past the post is terrible. It's time to implement either ranked choice voting or approval voting in California. Both are vast improvements on our current model. Ranked choice voting provides a built in multiatage primary allowing voters to list candidates in order of preference. This prevents crowded fields from dividing the vote. It isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than a candidate most people don't want winning. Approval voting let's voters simply vote for every candidate they want to win. It also prevents dividing the field. It's simpler than ranked choice and in its failure condition it acts just like our current system. Both of these are vast improvements and are used in other countries with great efficacy. Our democracy is old and it's time to update it with a few innovations.