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by Aloisius 704 days ago
California state primaries are top-2, not FPTP turning the general election into essentially a run-off. Parties still dominate. Same with my city elections which use RCV.

I’m not sure why they would reduce party influence either. Features like being robust against spoilers would seem to most benefit major party candidates.
2 comments
aldonius 704 days ago
By more-or-less eliminating spoiler effect RCV actually benefits major and minor party candidates (and of course, voters!).

For majors the benefit is clear: you don't get spoiled.

For minors, you don't have to overcome the barrier of being a spoiler if the race looks remotely close.

And of course voters are not disadvantaged just for having two acceptable choices rather than one.

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lann 704 days ago
Top-2 is a primary system, not a voting system. When combined with (essentially a generalized version of) FPTP you get most of the same problems.
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Aloisius 704 days ago
It's a two-round voting system. It is, by definition, not FPTP.

There only functional difference between it and say, the original French two-round system that Maurice Duverger (of Duverger's law) contrasted with FPTP is that someone who wins an outright majority in the first election (an open "primary" in California) is not immediately elected.

The fact the second round is FPTP doesn't change the overall voting system. With only two candidates for a single seat, most voting systems degenerate to FPTP, but none of the issues related to FPTP are present either (there are no clones, no strategic voting, etc.)

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