Time to implement ranked choice voting
The present system for electing a president is flawed by what is laughingly known as the Electoral College.
I can only surmise they called it a “college” because someone wanted to make a highly questionable idea seem like an intelligent choice.
The opponents of ranked choice voting (RCV), also known as instant runoff voting (IRV), appear to be afraid that results cannot be tilted in their favor and claim it’s too difficult and you’ll never understand it.
Its proponents are happy they aren’t forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, saying it’s very easy to understand.
Wherever it has been implemented, the voters have given it very good reviews.
W.C. Fields once said that he never voted for anybody, just against them. We have to get away from that mindset.
Dave Kisor
Pahoa
Lawmakers, booze and marijuana
So, let’s see if I got this straight.
Our legislators want to increase the penalty for the use of alcohol (“Broad support for BAC bill,” Tribune-Herald, Feb. 17), while decreasing the penalty for the use of marijuana (“Hearing set for pot bill,” Tribune-Herald, Feb. 11).
I’ll feel a lot better colliding with a doper than a drunk.
Richard Hoeflinger
Keaau
Let’s put an end to ‘shameful situation’
Nicholas Kristof’s exposé on the neglect of America’s children is shocking (“We Americans neglect our children,” Tribune-Herald, Feb. 8).
Fortunately, there are solutions, including one that is on the way to the Senate after passing the House. This is a call to action for us to make a difference by calling on our senators to pass this legislation that will expand the child tax credit, lifting 400,000 children out of poverty.
Why not send them Mr. Kristof’s opinion piece and ask them to make sure this shameful situation our children face comes to an end?
Together, we can make it an issue that matters so Congress will pass this and other initiatives to end the scourges of poverty in the world’s richest country.
Willie Dickerson
Snohomish, Wash.