I feel that the two party system has become less and less able to represent the varied views in the country, however the system is so entrenched that it is now difficult to escape. Because our presidential elections seem to be moving closer and closer to a tie many people feel pressured into voting for the lesser of two evils rather than risk "throwing away" their vote on a long shot 3rd party candidate. It seems to me that instant run off voting would be a possible answer to this problem.
What it is: (
http://www.fairvote.org/irv/whatis2.htm)
"Instant runoff voting is a winner-take-all, constitutionally protected, voting system that ensures a winning candidate will receive an absolute majority of votes rather than a simple plurality. IRV eliminates the need for runoff elections by allowing voters to rank their candidates in order of preference. "
1. you vote for your first and second choices for an election.
2. all first choice votes are counted
3. for all ballots in which the first choice did not receive a significant percentage of the vote the second choice is counted.
I think if we remove the current risk of voting for a third party candidate we can foster a few viable parties outside of the republicans and the democrats and strive towards a government that represents the wide variety of views that american's embrace.
Beyond the obvious issues that the two main parties may have with this model (since it takes power away from them) I don't see any reason why our country should not seek to implement such a system. thoughts?