I used to wonder if some of the modern ranked-choice vote systems might be improvements on what we have in America. I thought that in multi-candidate races, especially primaries, these things might work.
And then I started looking into it and realizing that there is a reason our system of fixed-term, single-member districts, and elections where the leading vote-getter wins, is so long-lived. It may lock in two parties, but it produces stability, and legitimacy.
It also allows factional negotiation to happen before the general election, rather than afterward. I wrote about the virtues of voting the American way for Commonplace magazine. Check it out here.