{"id":79804,"date":"2025-12-03T14:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T14:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/79804\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T14:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T14:26:10","slug":"the-california-governors-race-shows-why-we-need-ranked-choice-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/79804\/","title":{"rendered":"The California governor\u2019s race shows why we need ranked choice voting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  Dec. 3, 2025 6 AM PT  <\/p>\n<p>To the editor: Columnist George Skelton discusses how the two candidates for California governor in the 2026 general election could be two Republicans, each with relatively small support from the overall electorate (<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/newsletter\/2025-12-01\/skelton-monday-politics-newsletter-prop-50-newsom\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cA Republican California governor? It\u2019s possible, but a long shot,\u201d<\/a> Dec. 1). This possibility again shows why California needs some form of ranked choice voting.<\/p>\n<p>It is unreasonable that Californians should be saddled with a governor who has a relative sliver of support. With ranked choice voting, the winning candidate will likely have support from a majority, even if he or she is not the first choice of most voters.<\/p>\n<p>Ranked voting should be implemented as soon as possible for as many electoral offices as possible. This includes the system for choosing a new governor if a sitting governor is recalled. Currently, if a governor is recalled, say, by a vote of 51% to 49%, and the leading vote-getter for the replacement gets 10% of the vote, the candidate with 10% becomes the new governor.<\/p>\n<p>This is absurd. A ranked voting system to choose the replacement will protect against this.<\/p>\n<p>Adrienne Marks, Riverside<\/p>\n<p>..<\/p>\n<p>To the editor: Skelton states that, with so many Democrats running for governor, \u201cit is possible, after all, for a Republican to be elected California governor next year.\u201d Would that be such a catastrophe?<\/p>\n<p>We have had Democratic governors for the past 14 years in California, yet our <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/tax-brackets-and-rates\/highest-lowest-taxed-states\/?srsltid=AfmBOooTFooWmG9Scbo0DLdKl3bE_PhFo6TMOvfyKNPevNs5k4wLmvh_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">taxes<\/a>, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/state-gas-price-averages\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">gasoline prices<\/a>, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/california-budget-deficit-29315d622212facef307ddab29d4c0c7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">budget deficits<\/a> and <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/blog\/most-expensive-states-to-buy-a-house\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">home-buying costs<\/a> are among the highest in the nation. We spent <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/california-homelessness-spending-audit-24b-five-years-didnt-consistently-track-outcomes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">$24 billion<\/a> on homelessness over a five-year period, but we still have the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visualcapitalist.com\/mapped-americas-homeless-population-by-state\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">largest homeless population<\/a> in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it is time for a Republican governor again.<\/p>\n<p>Janet Polak, Beverly Hills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec. 3, 2025 6 AM PT To the editor: Columnist George Skelton discusses how the two candidates for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[45780,16476,7,2926,9,8,13540,45775,2072,45778,45779,45777,2211,21237,45776,11936,29860,4486],"class_list":["post-79804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-adrienne-marks","tag-budget-deficit","tag-california","tag-california-governor","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-candidate","tag-choice-voting","tag-editor","tag-gasoline-price","tag-most-voter","tag-new-governor","tag-race","tag-replacement","tag-small-support","tag-system","tag-taxis","tag-vote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}