I have to know, who came up with this screwy rated ballot idea

[Peacetrain]

We had a part of that for the first time in Iowa.. with writing down your first and second choices.. It so messed things up.. and now they are going to try and do a 5 selection weighted balance in NV early voting.. who came up with this nightmare..
Edit to add..

We are going to have to live with it.. but sheesh.. and I actually know which candidates supporters came up , and they have been complaining non stop since..

[Voltaire2]

1. Ranked choice voting is a pretty good system.

The problem in Iowa was a crappy untested app foisted on the party.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It's a form of ranked choice voting, which can work pretty well.

The problem was the way they managed it and the crappy app they used to tally the votes. It would be better to eliminate the caucus altogether, for reasons that have been discussed here before.

[democratisphere]

3. Anytime a voting system has a manipulation factor, adjustment,

multiple choices, outside influences or an electoral college it is a fraud. One vote, for one person based solely on their own choice is only kind of voting that should ever be acceptable.

[brooklynite]

4. So, we'll put you down as a "maybe"?

[democratisphere]

5. Maybe to be or not to be. Then, there is always a question.

THAT is what got US here in the first place.

[MineralMan]

6. In Minnesota, we're trying ranked choice voting ballots

in some elections, mostly local, like city council elections. I've voted a couple of times on a ranked choice ballot. I have two comments:

First, they complicate the ballot, since you have to vote multiple times for the same race. You can choose to vote only once, but if your candidate doesn't win on the first count, you're out of the decision. Last year, we had six candidates for the city council race in my city. I only voted on the first three sections of the ballot, to select my first, second, and third choice. My first choice won, but only after all ballot sections were counted. It took about a week. Had they not used that method, a run-off election would have been needed, and those cost money, and fewer people turn out for the second election.

Second, it's a very good way to give voters more options. In that city council election, I did vote for the candidate I liked best, but also had the opportunity to vote also for the candidate I liked as my second and third choices. That meant that I was able to rank my choices in the order I preferred.

Finally, I think it is an unwieldy process for voters. It presents too many options, and can confuse some voters. Many choose just to vote for their favorite in the first section and move on. Others don't understand the process and vote for their first choice in every section, which has no effect on the outcome.

I think people will get used to it, which is why it's being used only in certain races so far. I expect its use will be expanded, though.

[MH1]

9. Ballots don't need to be that complicated for RCV.

I recently got to use an online system called BigPulse. That was very easy. Only problem was, the paper ballot for backup was not integrated, so people had to fill out both. (Not good for a public election, okay for our organization - people were overwhelmingly satisfied and congratulatory about the overall process).

The ballot backup thing can be fixed though. I haven't gotten to see popular optical scan systems handle RCV ballots yet but I have heard that they do. Hopefully they organize the ballot in the BigPulse fashion rather than what you describe. (With BigPulse there was only one section per race, and you literally ranked the candidates. Because it was online software, it only allowed one "1", one "2", and so forth.)

[MineralMan]

10. I imagine that style of voting will continue to evolve.

Minnesota uses optical scanning of paper ballots. The state of that technology is still stuck in binary mode for each ballot item, pretty much, and doesn't have a way of measuring ranked choices marked on ballots in one section yet.

If ranked choice becomes more widely used, the technology will change, no doubt.

[hlthe2b]

7. Sounds a bit complicated, but I just got my ballot for CO Super Tuesday and don't dare send it

early since it is not at all clear who will still be in the race by then. The ballot is already out-of-date, since it still includes Castro, Bennet, Booker, Williamson and Yang...

[MH1]

8. Can you post a link that describes the system you experienced in detail?

I am involved locally with RCV. We recently used it for a local organization and the consensus was that it worked quite well.

From everything else I've seen about Iowa, it was very poorly organized and executed, so using any form of ranked ballot in that situation is a shame. It's unfair to tarnish RCV, which is gradually becoming more widely and successfully used, with the inevitable fallout of such a highly visible failure.

[MichMan]

11. If one of the concerns is how long the lines are in a general election

it seems like having to pick 2nd and 3rd choices would only make it that much worse

[CentralMass]

12. So a candidates supporters came up this and not the Nevada Democratic Committee?