Primaries leave sour taste

At the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, during the first editorial meeting the Advocate had, we discussed Donald Trump. At the time we decided to table the topic, to avoid giving The Donald the media attention that was helping to create a media-mogul-monster.

Well, we were wrong. Whether it started as a publicity stunt or not is irrelevant, as all signs now point to go for a general election in November with Donald Trump leading the Republican Party ticket.

At this point, the stage for the presidential showdown is set: Clinton vs. Trump. Yet somehow the majority of the nation very clearly wants neither of these candidates.

Every four years it seems like America is forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, and the reason is this: The two-party system has become so large and pervasive that voters’ logic becomes “Well, this isn’t the candidate that I really want, but the person I would elect doesn’t have a shot at winning, so I might as well vote for someone where my vote will mean something.”

But that logic is what keeps us from getting the elected officials we actually want. Our current system would work if everyone voted how they truly felt, instead of abiding by party lines. If so, the problem would solve itself – but that’s a tall order, one easier said than done.

There’s a quicker way to fix it within our system: change how we vote! If voters had second and third options for candidates, they no longer have reason not to vote for whoever they truly want. Let’s say a voter does pick a candidate highly unlikely to win: He or she fills the ballot out, and casts their first vote for our well-meaning, small-time, civic activist, who then loses the race. Then, the voter’s second vote counts for another candidate, until they’re eliminated, and so on.

It’s called Instant runoff voting, and while it’s been tried in other countries it’s never caught on in the U.S.

If there’s one thing that Trump and Hillary have shown us throughout this slew of state primary contests, it’s that there is a growing anti-establishment sentiment among Americans. And a good start to sating that frustration would be a voting system in which people aren’t forced to choose who they hate less.

Advocate Staff