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Steve Berman's avatar

Just some clarification. Georgia has had some form of primary system since 1898. Then in 1917, the legislature introduced the racist “county unit system” which suppressed Black voters in urban areas like Atlanta. In 1962, the system was struck down by the courts. It was replaced by the runoff system, which instead of a plurality requires a strict majority. That too was conceived to suppress Black voters, but it’s not really effective in that respect anymore.

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/counties-cities-neighborhoods/county-unit-system/

Going to ranked voting would eliminate runoffs but I don’t think it would have the effect David is looking for. MTG would have been elected under a ranked system, or any system really. She’s that popular in her district.

What we really have in Georgia is a due diligence problem (not just Georgia and not limited to the GOP). We also have a voter trust problem, a voter information problem, and--well a heap of problems that changing election rules can’t fix.

My $0.02.

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SGman's avatar

One of the issues with primaries is that the most active members of the party are the ones that determine the winner: and those tend to be the extremes, which are generally a minority view of the voter base.

Perhaps combining RCV and the non-partisan blanket primary (aka the jungle primary) would be a better way forward.

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