Getting used to ranked voting

In 2014, businesswoman Katherine Gehl had an epiphany about the failures of government: Politics is an industry, but unlike other industries with many competitors, politics only has two. With a U.S. Congress approval rating below 20%, these competitors aren’t providing what most customers/voters want. In any other industry, new competitors emerge to satisfy customer interests. Why not in politics? The simple answer is … the way we vote. 

Most elections are decided in low turn-out primaries, so effectively, primary voters “hire” most legislators. It makes sense that our politicians cater to their primary voters for fear of being “fired” later. This often leads to the demonization of opponents and gridlock. Sustainable, consensus-oriented solutions rarely get enacted.   

In 2017, Gehl and Harvard business strategist Michael Porter developed a simple election reform to ensure races are won in the general election, ending lesser-of-two-evils choices and incentivizing politicians to represent all voters. Alaska adopted this system in 2022. 

This does not weaken parties. We need a competition of ideas from strong major and minor parties, independents and people across the political spectrum. Multiple candidates from the same party can advance to the general election, allowing differing opinions within the same party to be considered by all voters.

Votes count more than money. In Alaska, Republican Cathy Giesel ran against a party-nominated Republican and won. She didn’t have the money nor political infrastructure provided by party backing; she won with ideas that appealed to a majority of voters.

It’s not complicated. It’s new, so it takes a moment to understand, but Alaskans understand … why not Coloradans? Results can be audited; election integrity can be verified.

To dive deeper, read “The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy,” and visit political- innovation.org.

– JoJo Neumann, Advisory Council, Institute for Political Innovation, Telluride