Ep. 50 – Ranked Choice Voting Featuring Harriet Wasserstrum & Mark Jones, Ph.D

You may already be familiar with the topic of today's show: ranked choice voting (also known as instant runoff voting). We were thrilled to be joined by two experts on the topic, Harriet Wasserstrum, Co-Founder and Chair of Ranked Choice Voting for Texas, along with Mark Jones, Ph.D., Fellow in Political Science and Chair in Latin American Studies for Rice University's Baker Institute.

Harriet walked us through a summary of how ranked choice voting works and how it is currently being used. "Ranked Choice Voting for Texas" is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that advocates for the adoption of ranked choice voting for primary and general elections for local, state, and federal elections in Texas.

At this point you must be wondering, how does this all fit in with energy policy and the usual areas of interest for COBT? Here is how it fits in - it's a voting system that encourages more candidates, more voting, and perhaps more moderation and more centrism. What we need in energy, climate and economic development policies are more balance... more predictability... and more common sense. Perhaps Ranked Choice Voting could help us achieve those and other "moderate" goals? That's overly simplistic but please listen and see what you think. We had a great discussion!

We also had our expert TPH crew: Mike Bradley covered the delay on the DAPL hearing and Colin Fenton took us back to Sunday night's Super Bowl to discuss two automotive commercials and why they were both unique cultural moments.

Thanks to you all and see you next week!