Kos is wrong. I love Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for Elections, but not for Primaries.

by Dbug

Community

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 at 4:54:03am PST

FILE - Senator Robert F. Kennedy, D-NY, tells reporters, and the nation, that he is a candidate for his party's presidential nomination on March 16, 1968, in Washington. (AP Photo, File)

Kos recently suggested Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) would be good for the 2028 Democratic Presidential Primaries. I love RCV when you’re electing someone to be the one person who wins an election (whether it’s for Governor, Senator, Mayor, County Auditor, or Dog Catcher). RCV is a great system. You can vote for your first choice, your second choice, your third choice, and so on. Ranked Choice Voting means I can vote for the flaming liberal I prefer, and then my second choice is the moderate Dem who isn’t a total idiot. If I don’t get my first choice, my second choice will be acceptable to me.

But when you vote in a Democratic Presidential Primary Election, you’re not voting for that person to be nominated President of the United States. You’re voting for the people who will go to the Democratic National Convention to vote for that person to be President. An election for delegates in a primary shouldn’t be winner-takes-all.

I was eleven years old in 1968 when Robert F. Kennedy won the California primary with 47% of the vote. Eugene McCarthy got 41%. The rules at the time said RFK won all of the California delegates to the convention. To me that was not fair. It’s a primary. Kennedy should have gotten slightly more delegates than McCarthy. Then RFK was assassinated in a hotel kitchen and the convention was pure chaos.

My point is this: Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) makes sense for an election. It doesn’t make sense for a national primary. I disagree with Kos.