Why Third Parties Rarely Win and How America Can Change That

Lee Drutman discussed ranked-choice voting and proportional representation in News Nation.

But while Drutman agreed that ranked-choice voting may eliminate the spoiler effect — meaning third parties could run races without fearing that they are throwing the race to either the Democrat or Republican — he argued it hasn’t done much to help third parties actually win races.

In San Francisco, for instance, municipal elections are officially nonpartisan and they have been using ranked choice voting for two decades. But every member of the Board of Supervisors, which acts as the city council, is affiliated with the Democratic Party.

“I like a lot of people was sort of excited about the promise of ranked-choice voting… for me it really hasn’t delivered on the promises of really expanding the space of political representation,” Drutman said.

He advocates for a bolder reform: eliminating single-winner elections. Countries like Germany, Israel or Sweden use a form of what’s called proportional representation.