Only 537 votes separated George W. Bush and Al Gore in Florida when the U.S. Supreme Court called off the Florida recount in 2000. Alongside the hanging chads, butterfly ballots, and overvotes, Democrats offered another reason the outcome of the vote was unfair.

Green Party nominee Ralph Nader received 97,488 votes. Many Democrats argue that if Nader hadn’t appeared on the ballot, enough of his voters would have voted for Gore that Gore would have won Florida and thus the U.S. presidential election.

This debate concerns the “spoiler effect," where citizens voting for third party candidates run the risk of electing the major party candidate they like the least. The spoiler effect hasn’t only been a problem for Democrats. Republicans worry Libertarian Party candidates will attract votes that otherwise would be cast for Republicans.

Party loyalists use the spoiler argument to urge third party and independent candidates not to run, and to urge voters not to “waste their vote.” But there is a better way of fixing the spoiler effect that doesn’t require voters to choose between only two choices — ranked choice voting.

Under ranked choice voting, voters rank their choices by placing a 1 next to their first choice, a 2 next to their second choice, and so on. The candidate with the least number of first preference votes has their votes transferred to their voters’ second choices.

Then the same thing happens to the candidate with the second least number of votes. This process continues until a candidate has more than 50 percent of the vote, or there are only two candidates left.

This system allows voters to vote their conscience without having to worry about accidentally electing the candidate they prefer the least.

It also strengthens third party and independent candidates who would have a fighting chance in a system where they wouldn’t have to worry about citizens voting strategically for a major party candidate to avoid the spoiler effect.

Maine has already begun implementing ranked choice voting. Kansas should do so as well, and it has no time to waste.

Sen. Pat Roberts has announced he won’t be running for re-election in 2020, which means the Republican primary will be wide open. It’s likely that a large number of candidates will be vying for the position.

If only five candidates run, and split the vote fairly evenly, a candidate could secure the nomination with 21 percent of the vote, even if a majority of voters in the election prefer them the least.

Under our current system, someone can win by simply being the first preference of the largest group of voters, even if they receive only a small minority of the votes cast.

With ranked choice voting, the winning candidate must have broad support, which clearly makes it the better system to elect our representatives.

— Jason Beets is a reporter for the Salina Journal.