Ending the Smoke-Filled Rooms: Adopting Ranked Choice Voting

Party politics in America is dominated by backroom deals and entrenched power structures that shut out new voices and fresh ideas. The endorsement process in both major parties has long been controlled by insiders—leaving candidates to win favor not on their ideas, but on their ability to “play the game.” This system is broken and undemocratic.

Key Principles

• Ranked Choice Voting for Endorsements & Primaries:

  • Implement ranked choice voting (RCV) within party primaries, endorsements, and internal elections.
  • Forces parties to adapt to the 21st century by opening up the process to more candidates and ideas.
  • Builds voter enthusiasm and turnout by ensuring candidates can transfer support between bases.

• Break Party Elitism:

  • End the cliquish, exclusionary culture of endorsements decided in “smoke-filled rooms.”
  • Democrats especially must return to being a true big-tent party—open to farmers, labor, and rural voters once again.

• Encourage Competition & New Leadership:

  • Without reforms, parties will remain stagnant, recycling the same ideas and politicians.
  • RCV ensures that the candidates with the broadest support rise to the top, not just those with insider backing.

• Protect Democracy Against Entrenchment:

  • Career politicians should not treat Congress as a lifetime appointment.
  • Open primaries and endorsements to as many participants as possible, fostering a healthier democracy.

• Hybrid System Potential:

  • Combining ranked choice with first-past-the-post voting can help maintain clarity while improving fairness.
  • Encourages unusual and interesting results that strengthen parties with new energy and ideas.

Democracy thrives on participation, not insider games. By adopting ranked choice voting for primaries and endorsements, we can break the stranglehold of the smoke-filled rooms, give voters real choices, and restore faith in the political process.

If parties want to keep the two-party system, they must open the doors—or risk fading into irrelevance.