The party system in the US does feel rigged to entrench the two remaining parties in the US. My hope is dropping first past the pole and adding ranked choice will help break up the duopoly.
Still, there are glimmers of hope now and again. Like Ross Pero running as independent or the Bull Moose party.
The GOP really suffered in recent Alaskan elections after they adopted Ranked Choice voting. So expect them to very loudly and strongly oppose it being adopted anywhere, with a lot of bad-faith arguments implying it's a form of electoral corruption/manipulation and holding it up as an example of Democrat trickery.
Ranked-choice voting (STV, IIRC?) was rejected by referendum in the UK because (words to the effect of) “it’s too complicated for the average voter to understand”, according to the Keep FPTP camp.
It’s a dumb argument for sure, but now (i.e. post-Brexit referendum) I can’t help but think it’s a valid dumb argument…
I don't think British people are inherently dumber than the people here in Germany.
Here you get two votes (one for the candidate of your district and one for the party. The second vote determines the number of seats while the first one makes sure a local guy gets one if them).
This is much more difficult than just listing candidates in the order you like them and "make sure you include anyone you can somewhat stomach".
Yet I've not heard if anyone being "confused (in the sende that they don't know what to choose) by the German system.
Some people might not fully grasp the system but that's ok (after all most will be intellectually able to understand it).
Mixed-member proportionate representation requires a constitutional overhaul though, which is why it's a very, very hard-sell without a prerequisite revolution, war, and/or guillotining of the malign parts of the aristocracy...
> Like Ross Pero running as independent or the Bull Moose party.
The thing is those things either don't work (as in those examples) or they do and just replace one of the major parties in whay becomes a new, generally stable 2-party alignment.
To get out of that, you need to weaken the electoral system elements reinforcing duopoly, the most direct way being to adopt some form of proportional representation (e.g., STV), at least for most (e.g., all state and the federal House of Reps) legislative elections.
Even the commonly offered proposal of ranked ballots methods in single-member districts doesn’t really address the problem (PR, whether by STV or other mechanisms, also destroys the ability to significantly distort by gerrymandering.)
Still, there are glimmers of hope now and again. Like Ross Pero running as independent or the Bull Moose party.