I noticed RCV fundamentally violates the 'one man, one vote' principle whereas voters who picked a losing candidate get a second vote in deciding the winner but those who select better performing candidates do not have their second vote candidate as their choice is not eliminated. Should and/or will RCV be declared unconstitutional?
But every vote has a different weight. Say someone votes Republican A but ranks the Democrat as a second choice; the voter essentially propels Republican A in a close race but then also gets a vote for a Democrat counted in a close election. Nominally all voters get the same voice BUT it matters who you rank and inherently disadvantages a party who has their candidates split. A voter can vote Republican B but say B barely edges A out of the race; the second choice votes of B don't matter essentially giving initial voters of A far more weight in the election as a whole even though they already voted. Now in a system like Approval Rating all voters could get a second or even third choice counted from all candidates so all second choice votes of Democrat, GOP A and GOP B are counted. Now the conundrum is once these 'second votes' are counted how will candidates be eliminated since not doing an actual runoff would render the party with two candidates at an extreme disadvantage. The difference with runoffs is that all voters have an equal say in determining which of the candidates emerges victorious. Purely from opinion I see RCV unsuitable for GE's due to the fact that the party with 2/3 candidates is at a disadvantange and the main issue outlined above but it could be very useful in open partisan primary elections allowing a balanced view and perhaps in blanket primaries.
