Ranked choice voting has the added benefit of everybody can understand what the fuck it is. It’s very simple and it’s much better than first past the post.
Approval is better than Ranked Choice at this. And it lacks the weaknesses of RCV. Literally the only major change from FPTP is that you can vote for as many candidates as you’d like on your ballot. No spoiler effect because there’s nothing to spoil. Strategic voting isn’t remotely as bad either. RCV is in many cases a step up from FPTP (but not always and the more voters actually understand it the worse it gets) but it’s still a bad solution to the problem.
I’d support STAR over RCV because it’s mathematically better but my go to is Approval, mostly because of the specific issue with STAR you’ve pointed out - it’s more complicated to explain, vote under and report on than FPTP or Approval.
Approval is better than Ranked Choice at this. And it lacks the weaknesses of RCV. Literally the only major change from FPTP is that you can vote for as many candidates as you’d like on your ballot. No spoiler effect because there’s nothing to spoil. Strategic voting isn’t remotely as bad either. RCV is in many cases a step up from FPTP (but not always and the more voters actually understand it the worse it gets) but it’s still a bad solution to the problem.
I’d support STAR over RCV because it’s mathematically better but my go to is Approval, mostly because of the specific issue with STAR you’ve pointed out - it’s more complicated to explain, vote under and report on than FPTP or Approval.