Love him or hate him, spunky Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius refuses to side with the average Valencia Street-dwelling trustifarian robot who eschews motorized vehicles. And for that? We love him... even if we don't agree with him too often. Take, for example, today's rant against ranked-choice voting. He's not totally into it, you see. Comparing rank choice to "a slot machine" -- an electoral process we would simply adore -- Nevius says:

A much better idea would be to have a runoff between the candidates who got the highest number of votes - as in the neck-and-neck race in District Two between Janet Reilly and Mark Farrell. Now that they've got our attention, let them reposition themselves, answer tough questions, and pitch their agenda.

Cynics would also say that a runoff encourages deals with specialized groups. But I'd say what's wrong with that? If a candidate can't put together a consensus in a runoff it is going to be damned tough to govern.

Interesting point. But we prefer ranked-choice voting. We just so. It got jean Quan electedOakland Mayor. So, you know, hrumph.

However, Nevius goes on to mention infamous former Supervisor Ed Jew, who won his seat on the Board of Supervisors via ranked-choice voting. And we all know how that turned out.

[Chron]