A Totally Rank Reaction

​In an interview with Emily Brooks of The Hill, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) said, "Ranked choice voting, I think, is unconstitutional," adding that “60% of the voters in Alaska voted for the Republican agenda. And someone with less than 40% is going to represent that. See, that doesn't make much sense. A constitutional republic wasn't designed that way"

This complaint has been a recurring reaction among Republicans ever since Sarah Palin lost in the Alaska special election.  To be clear, hey didn’t have any complaints about it beforehand.

So, just a few things to note.

It would be nice to hear what Mr. Emmer and other Republicans have to say about all the states and cities that use ranked voting.  Like New York City, the most populous city in the country, which recently used ranked voting for its mayoral race.

And nice to hear their thoughts on the Iowa Caucus, which used a form of ranked voting, and has for many decades.  As do Nevada, North Dakota, and Wyoming

Also, it’s important to know the basic civics concept that we vote for individuals, not parties. So, the winner of the Alaska race after that first round would not have been “Republican,” despite them getting 60% of the vote.  It would have been – Democrat Mary Peltola!  That’s because she got the most votes – something that Mr. Emmer and Republicans – Democrats – seem to like.

Further, it’s important to make clear that Sarah Palin never led in in any round. And in elections, it really helps to finish in first place.  In fact, not only was Palin never in first place after any round --  when the race was just here against Mary Peltola, one-against-one…Palin only got 48.5% of the vote.  That’s why she lost.  Alaskans didn’t like her.  Among other things, they probably hated that she quit as governor halfway through her term to try and rake in the money on TV offers. 

Or to put this another way, missed in all the GOP hyperbolic faux-outrage -- if there was NO ranked voting in Alaska, and only the results of the first round counted...Sarah Palin would still have lost, and Mary Peltola would still have won!!!

Oh, and in California – the most populous state in the Union – primaries are held with all candidates of every party thrown in together on the ballot.  And if no one gets 50% of the vote, the top two candidates run in the general election.  If one party has 10 candidates in the race, and gets 80% of the vote – and the other party only has one candidate, who only gets 12% of the vote, but that’s enough to finish in second place, then those top two candidates will run against each other in the general election.  It’s probably a worse system than ranked voting.  But Mr. Emmer and Republicans don’t say a word of complaint against it.  I suspect that’s because California is a very Democratic state, and this system gives Republicans a better chance.

(And hey, as long as we have to keep listening to GOP whining about how difficult and confusing ranked voting is, here's a Fun Fact:  ranked voting is how they decide on the Oscars and have for years.  Members of the Motion Picture Academy figured it out pretty easily.  And as a bonus point, no one whines that it's unfair.  In fact, the very opposite.)

Also, given that this is how Tom Emmer says he feels about voting, upset that a party that gets 60% of the vote in the first round can lose to the other party that only got 40% of the vote in that first round (though 51.5% in the final round…) no doubt he must have been furious when Trump and George W. Bush won the presidency with fewer votes than their opponents. He must be wildly against the Electoral College.  He must be -- though I’m going to guess, nah, not so much.  Unless perhaps it was the other way around, and the Democrat won with fewer popular votes.

So, y'know, the whole "It's unconstitutional" whine sounds great in a tweet and perhaps in a fundraising letter, 

And by the way, contrary to Tom Emmer's statement, the United States is a democratic republic.  Mr. Emmer himself was elected to Congress in a democratic, one person-one vote race.  But so many Republicans these days like to say that we’re not a “democracy.”  It's their latest Talking Point.  A couple years ago, Utah Senator Mike Lee (who was also elected in a democratic, one person-one vote race), stated that as bluntly as could be in a tweet.

It never struck me as a good thing when one party in a democracy keeps going around trying to say we’re not a democracy.  But it become more clear why they’ve been doing that when what also became clear that the Republican Party had become fascist.

As a fun, final note, it turns out that Rep, Tom Emmer (R-MN) is really on a roll lately.  You may recall that he's the same Republican who compared the Constitutional right that women had for abortion to being like Chinese genocide.

Yeah, that too is just so on brand for today’s GOP.