A famous tyrant once quipped, "It's not who votes that counts, but who counts the votes." Yet it turns out that democracy suffers from other technical problems.
How the votes are counted, that matters too.
In Pierce County, Washington, a new voting system came online for the last election: Ranked Choice Voting or (as it is usually called) Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). And a number of politicians aren't happy about it. Challengers appear to have a better chance in the system, with a smaller percentage of big spenders winning...











Ranked voting and rank politics
Where does it do that exactly?
As the SCOTUS pointed out there is no constitutional right to vote in a Federal election (meaning the president and vice-president or to be precise the electors that vote for the president or vice-president).
Before 1824 many states choose electors by the state legislatures and Nevada in 1864 (the Halloween prank on the nation in 1864 just days before the election), Florida in 1868 (still under occupation by hostile military forces) and Colorado in 1876 (like Nevada a new state) also choose its electors by the legislature.
All 50-states could pick electors using SNTR or STR or instant run-off or have them...