It’s election time again. Many believe our vote doesn’t make a difference, largely because most politicians have a reverse Midas touch; turning everything they touch into something much stinkier … and browner … than gold. But we can make a visible difference in our local elections.

Elections in Las Cruces have been won by fewer than 100, 50 and even 20 votes. Plus, it’s easy to tell what sort of people the candidates are. They’re our neighbors, friends, family, coworkers, etc. We either know them personally or know somebody who knows them. Forget party affiliation; we can actually judge and vote for candidates as individuals!

There’s something new this time, though. Our municipal elections for positions like mayor and city council will use ranked choice voting. Many don’t understand it and some may not realize it’s been implemented for this election, but it’s nothing to avoid the polls for. I tried to find faults with it, but I’m seeing no major problems with it. A few things to know:

It only applies here to municipal elections. If only two candidates run for an office, just vote for one of the two like normal. Ranked choice only comes into effect with more than two candidates. In that case, we vote first for who we most want to win. Then we can vote for a second choice, third choice, etc. To win, a candidate must get at least 50% plus one of all votes cast for a clear majority. If no one reaches that threshold, instead of having a separate, expensive run-off election, the candidate with the least amount of votes is eliminated and everyone who voted for them has their next choice votes counted for the remaining candidates. If no one reaches 50% plus one then, the next lowest-voted for candidate is eliminated and those who voted for them have their next choice votes added to the remaining candidates and so on until someone reaches that 50% plus one threshold.

This eliminates the time and cost of run-offs; plus, just because a voter is committed to one candidate, they can’t be ignored by other candidates. They’ll still try to earn our vote, even if it’s a second or third choice. It should also limit negative campaigning. After all, who’s going to vote for you as a second choice if you attack their first choice?

We also don’t have to vote for anyone we don’t want to. This concerned me a lot, so I made sure that our votes will only be counted toward those who we’re willing to vote for. I know that sounds like common sense, but this is government; where sense of any kind goes to die. I had to make sure. Finally, all other elections will run the traditional way.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of voting for the status quo and then wonder why we keep getting the same "reverse Midas" results; but, the truth is, we know who good people are when we see them and who shouldn’t be allowed to work the TV remote, much less hold public office. Endorsements by the PVA or NM CAFé or various GOP groups or any publication won’t make a bad candidate better or a good candidate worse, so why don’t we try something different this time? Let’s ignore the agendas of these groups and instead use our own judgement to put the best people possible in office. We might end up fixing some of the mess in our city and, as a fringe benefit, irritate those groups that think they can mold our opinions. 


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