Unite America Believes Democracy is Advanced When the Majority Voice is Preserved

A spoiler candidate pulls votes away from an otherwise popular candidate, and the opposing candidate, with less than 50% support, wins the election and advances positions that don’t represent the majority voice of their constituency.

That scenario has not been uncommon, and it’s just one of the issues that Summit Impact Democracy Fellow, Nick Troiano, is seeking to address as the Executive Director of Unite America.

Following a notable run for Congress as a young independent candidate in south central Pennsylvania in 2014, Nick worked for Change.org on Change Politics – a non-partisan platform that empowers citizens to make informed decisions on Election Day. In 2016, he became the Executive Director of Unite America and was named to the "Forbes 30 Under 30" for Law & Policy.

Unite America is a movement of Democrats, Republicans, and independents working to bridge the growing partisan divide and foster a more representative and functional government.

Among Unite America’s approaches is advocacy for “ranked choice voting,” allowing voters to choose multiple candidates in order of preference. If a voters candidate fails to make it past the first round, their second place vote is counted instead, until one candidate receives a majority vote. Now in place in both Maine and Alaska, ranking choice voting had a significant impact on this year’s Alaska congressional election.

According to Unite America, ranked choice voting advances democracy in four ways: guaranteeing a majority winner; increasing competition by eliminating the "spoiler effect" argument for non-establishment, third party, and independent candidates; saving taxpayer money by creating an automatic run-off election when the leading candidate earns less than 50% of the vote; and encouraging civility as candidates need to appeal to their opponent's supporters for second place votes.

Other Unite America strategies include independent redistricting, nonpartisan primaries, and voting at home.

As Nick says, “If we want our great American experiment of self-government…to endure, we’re going to need to make some serious changes to our politics.” And that’s exactly the effort that Nick, and Unite America, are determined to lead.

To learn more, visit www.uniteamerica.org.