Instead of only voting for one candidate we should be able to upvote or downvote each candidate
It would be great to be able to vote for every candidate in an election instead of only once and you can decide to upvote, downvote, or not vote for any candidate. This way you never “throw away” your vote and extreme/hated candidates can be downvoted so if im not a fan of any candidate but one is particularly awful I can downvote that one and not vote any I don’t like while still making my voice heard that I definitely don’t want this specific candidate
Ranked Choice is actually (much) worse overall than the modified Score that OP is describing, even with bullet voting.
As a note, Ranked Choice still has bullet voting. About 30% of voters in a ranked choice election bullet vote.
This video goes into a deep dive about Ranked Choice (and some other systems) and talks about how Ranked Choice might actually be worse than simple plurality. (which is already pretty bad)
As a note, Ranked Choice still has bullet voting. About 30% of voters in a ranked choice election bullet vote.
I think that stat could easily be attributed to a lack of familiarity with what is, to a lot of people, a new and different method of voting. You'd be surprised how many people don't adequately read or understand directions.
In other words, what you're describing isn't inherent to the system itself and it could be much worse.
I'd guess that the number of people who bullet vote will decrease as the level of education and familiarity around "new" voting systems like RCV increases.
It wouldn’t be a two party this guy versus that guy election though. There would be debates/campaigning and then you upvote/downvote/novote for each candidate running and whoever gets the most wins