What If: Ranked Choice Voting Implemented in the USA

I would bet big tent parties would adapt jungle primaries to suppress third parties. Interested candidates can build support within the party structure rather than build from scratch or at least from disadvantage outside. It wouldn't do away with them entirely, and would increase the ideological variation of elected officials- just within even bigger tent main parties.

Example for those who don't know what I'm talking about would be like California's current statewide primaries where you might have seven Democrats and five Republicans of various ideological stripes on the same ballot as the Green and Libertarian candidates. Only in this world, you'd rank preference rather than having a 2-round runoff.
 
Yes, for congress or local elections. But I don't think big tent parties will ever disappear from America for presidential election.

You need 270 electoral votes, a majority from 538. Without it it goes to the House which is chaotic. Then it's liable for corruption and promises, things very harmful to our democracy. Then it might not reflect the will of the voters.

Even in a popular vote system, a candidate would only win 30% of the vote, something very undesirable.

It would only work if you had a runoff popular vote system

I fully agree with this: considering that the procedure for electing the President is, ultimately, decided in the Electoral Collage by the Constitution. Which is exactly why I said the Socialists would likely never see a president elected. Unless of course states adopt non "winner-take-all" methods of distributing the votes, allowing for reasonable showings in the earlier voting rounds by those parties with a reasonable national presence. Sure, it wouldn't change the OUTCOME, but it would likely affect political behavior and provided a clearer picture of what positions different portions of the American public desire rather than simply prefer to an opposite on more nuanced issues. For example, seeing first-round electoral votes go to a Socialist candidate might cause an elected Republican president to take a softer stance on demand-side economics and focus more on social issues and the protection of small businesses, while a socially Conservative 3rd party making a respectable showing might cause a Democratic president to behave more "Blue Dog" than they otherwise would.
 
Not practical in the US. There are too many offices on the ballot. As it is, Australian elections can take weeks to resolve, with only one ballot position. The Progressives wanted even more directly elected offices.
 
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