There is nothing in the Constitution that says there must be two parties. Two parties are polarizing, limiting political discussion. A vote for the minor party that you like may cause a win for the party you do not like, so you may have to hold your nose when voting.

A few wealthy people can do the nominating. Lawrence Lessig describes this as Lesterland on YouTube.

Few democracies have two party systems, he notes. “There are six parties in the German Congress, Australia has six parties, the Italian Parliament has six major parties − and over two dozen smaller parties, Brazil has 15 parties represented in Congress. Israel's Parliament has like 18 parties in it.”

Ranked choice voting could break the two-party monopoly. Voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives an overall majority of first preferences, those with fewest votes are eliminated one by one, and their votes transferred according to their second and third preferences (and so on) and all votes re-tallied, until one candidate achieves a majority .

With RCV, minor parties would not be spoilers, voters would have more choice, polarization would lessen, political dialogue become more nuanced, and democracy strengthened.

HR1 is also necessary to keep the republic.

Robert Vogel

East Lyme