In the wake of what can be described as President Joe Biden’s Nuremberg party rally speech, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., may come to regret his tweet from the day before.
Biden announced, from what looked like the Gates of Hell, that any Republican who disputes the results of an election is a dangerous threat to democracy.
Columnist Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post was certainly onboard.
Rubin was hired as a "conservative" columnist. After Trump was elected in 2016, against her wishes, she quickly lapsed into nasty ex-wife syndrome.
After Biden’s party harangue, she tweeted, "Biden’s Philadelphia speech met the moment. Mass arrests should come next." No surprise there. She subsequently deleted the tweet, but not the sentiment, which is rampant among the "compassionate" left.
Sen. Cotton crossed the line by denying the results of an Alaska election the day before.
NBC reports that after Democrat Mary Peltola defeated former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a special election for Congress, Cotton tweeted "Alaska's new ranked-choice voting system 'is a scam to rig elections,' casting doubt on the outcome of the process to fill the seat of late GOP Rep. Don Young."
Cotton then elaborated, "60 percent of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion — which disenfranchises voters — a Democrat 'won'."
This election wasn’t a normal congressional election. It was Alaska’s first experience with ranked-choice voting after it was approved in a 2020 referendum.
Ranked-choice works this way. In every race with more than two candidates, voters rank the contestants in order of preference on their ballot, like judges at a wet T-shirt contest.
In a multi-candidate field, as was the case in Alaska, if no one receives a majority then all last-place finisher ballots are thrown out and those voter’s second choice becomes their new vote.
If no one gets a majority then, the last place finisher’s votes continue to be tossed and second choices used until someone gets a majority or Biden declares martial law.
Boosters of ranked choice voting promote the change with feel-good promises that are mostly immune to verification. As the League of Women Voters demonstrates.
According to that hen party ranked choice "promotes majority support . . . discourages negative campaigning . . . provides more choice . . . minimizes strategic voting . . . [and] saves money."
What they don’t tell you is many elections are going to be decided by voters who are the worst at judging candidates and the issues that make them electable.
The second-place votes of people whose candidate finished dead last are going to be used to determine a winner. That alone will put a spring in the step of Green Party voters.
What should disqualify ranked-choice voting from being used is not relying upon the whims of the incompetent to choose the winner.
The big problem with the system is it’s unconstitutional.
In Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964), the U.S. Supreme Court established the principle of one man, one vote. Ranked choice voting violates this principle because the voters who supported the losing candidate have their votes counted twice.
First for the loser and then for their second choice. The voters who had enough sense to vote for a viable candidate in the first place only have their votes counted once.
It’s electoral affirmative action for the politically impaired.
Wise states already have a system in place that ensures all candidates who take office enjoy support from a majority of voters.
And it doesn’t require a murky backroom count where candidate support fluctuates like the numbers on a horse racing tote board. The time-tested system is called a runoff.
And even better, every voter’s ballot is counted once and only once.
Sen. Cotton’s Arkansas has that system. If one candidate gets at least 40% of the vote, but less than 50%, and another candidate has at least 20%, there is a runoff to decide the winner.
It’s neat, clean and the results are obvious enough that no one will feel compelled to dispute the result and wind up on a Biden/Rubin arrest list.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.