Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T06:35:46.547Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Clashes Involving National Popular Vote, Hare (“RCV”), Maine, Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2021

Richard F. Potthoff Open the ORCID record for Richard F. Potthoff [Opens in a new window]
Richard F. Potthoff*
Affiliation:
Duke University, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Apparently unnoticed by its advocates, a prominent effort to improve the troubled US presidential-election system—the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC)—is on a collision course with another effort at electoral change—“ranked-choice voting” (RCV, known previously by less ambiguous names). The NPVIC is a clever device intended, without constitutional amendment, to elect as president the nationwide popular-vote winner (i.e., the plurality-vote winner) rather than the electoral-vote winner. Election results in 2000, 2016, and 2020 enhanced its support. However, the (constitutional) ability of even one state to replace its plurality voting with another voting system causes the popular-vote total posited for the NPVIC to be undefined, thereby rendering the NPVIC unusable. Maine and Alaska recently switched from plurality voting to RCV for presidential elections. Consequently, tangled results and turmoil could occur with the NPVIC. To improve presidential elections, replacing plurality voting with other systems appears to be more sensible than pursuing the NPVIC.

Type
Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 22 - 27
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Black, Duncan. 1958. Theory of Committees and Elections. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brams, Steven J., and Fishburn, Peter C.. 2007. Approval Voting. 2nd ed. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Fishburn, Peter C., and Brams, Steven J.. 1983. “Paradoxes of Preferential Voting.” Mathematics Magazine 56 (4): 207–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green-Armytage, James, Tideman, T. Nicolaus, and Cosman, Rafael. 2016. “Statistical Evaluation of Voting Rules.” Social Choice and Welfare 46 (1): 183–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koza, John R., Fadem, Barry, Grueskin, Mark, Mandell, Michael S., Richie, Robert, and Zimmerman, Joseph F.. 2013. Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote. 4th ed. Los Altos, CA: National Popular Vote Press.Google Scholar
Nurmi, Hannu. 1987. Comparing Voting Systems. Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel Publishing Company.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potthoff, Richard F. 2013. “Simple Manipulation-Resistant Voting Systems Designed to Elect Condorcet Candidates and Suitable for Large-Scale Public Elections.” Social Choice and Welfare 40 (1): 101–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potthoff, Richard F. 2019. “Three Bizarre Presidential-Election Scenarios: The Perils of Simplism.” Social Sciences 8 (5): 134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richie, Robert, and Levien, Andrea. 2013. “The Contemporary Presidency: How the 2012 Presidential Election Has Strengthened the Movement for the National Popular Vote Plan.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 43 (2): 353–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
State of Maine. 2020. “Certificate of Ascertainment of Electors.” www.archives.gov/files/electoral-college/2020/ascertainment-maine.pdf. (Accessed December 27, 2020.)Google Scholar