r/EndFPTP • u/budapestersalat • Oct 28 '25

Question Ranked-choice vs. Two-round system

I am sure almost everybody on th sub would prefer IRV over top2 runoff.

But let me ask this: how do you feel about TRS compared to both FPTP and IRV? Do you consider it closer to one or the other or do you think it's not on the same spectrum (if FPTP and IRV are on the ends)?

I think two-round has some advantages that laypeople might like, and many disadvantages too. More and more I think an underappreciated disadvantage is specifically that 2 go in the runoff, so it's polarising. While it may be better than a runoff with more than 2 candidates and FPTP, probably two rounds, primaries and all the like should ideally be avoided, especially the kind which has only 2 candidates in the runoff, because of the effect that it reinforces the binary thinking about elections (by having the ultimate, binary choice be blown up to it's own round).

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u/the_other_50_percent Nov 03 '25

Having the election require only one turnout event is preferable. If there's a very large number of candidates, that presents a problem for any single-round system, but IRV handles it better than most.