Race results show need for ranked-choice voting

The results of Tuesday's GOP primary in the 14th congressional district illustrate the clear need for ranked-choice voting in primary elections in Illinois.

Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in their order of preference and is used in Maine and recently approved by voters in New York City.

Opponents of ranked-choice voting argue that it could improve the chances of third parties, but if it were only used in primary elections, it would still maintain our current two-party system.

The suburbs have seen several elections in the past 10 years produce weak candidates, and those that only appeal to the extreme base of a party. In 2010, Joe Walsh won the GOP 8th Congressional District primary getting only 34% of the vote. His narrow general election victory, where voters usually choose someone based on the D or R next to their name, helped lead to the increased polarization we're now seeing in Washington. In 2018, Doug Bennett earned 36% of the vote in the 9th District congressional primary, and was easily defeated in the general election, making Democrat Brad Schneider a firmly entrenched incumbent, where the GOP only found one candidate lining up to oppose him in 2020.

This year, Jim Oberweis earned only 25% of the vote in the 14th District race, with three-fourths of the voters clearly stating that this flawed candidate (see previous U.S. Senate and Illinois governor elections) is not best to represent their party. If we had ranked-choice voting, voters could have listed multiple candidates ahead of Oberweis, who clearly won based on his name recognition.

The Illinois General Assembly needs to look into this change to prevent extreme partisans and flawed candidates from representing their parties in our general elections.

Thomas Kuhn

Wauconda