Advocates make the claim that ranked-choice voting is the only way to ensure the elected candidate receives 51 percent or more of votes, rather than declaring the one garnering more votes than the other candidates as winner by plurality. That is absurd.
Many people lack college degrees, but know how to look up words in the dictionary. My Webster’s New World Dictionary, School and Office Edition, gives the definition of “plurality” as: “1. being plural or numerous. 2. a majority”
It defines majority as: “1. a greater number; more than half. 2. the excess of the larger number of votes cast for one candidate over the rest of the votes.”
Clearly, majority need not be exactly 51 percent or more in political voting and, therefore, tinkering with the current system is unnecessary.
John Davis, South Paris
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