I’m currently working on an independent theater project. It’s an improvised sitcom inspired by sitcoms of the 1990s. When it came time to choose our group’s sitcom’s premise, it was a hard decision. How would we choose just one theme for our performance group to follow?

To choose, I turned to ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting allows you to choose not just your favorite option, but to rank options. Let’s say, for example, you were voting in a best food poll and your favorite food was hot dogs, but you also liked hamburgers. You could rank hot dogs first and hamburgers second. If hot dogs don’t receive enough votes to be a major contender, your votes would then go to your second choice, hamburgers, still ensuring that your individual voice counts.

This turned out to be a really good option for my performance group. It got us a result we were all happy with and it made everyone’s voice heard. And this got me thinking: we should use ranked choice voting for all voting.

In the past few years, there’s been an obsession with voting defensively, particularly on the left. People vote not because they love a candidate but because they’re afraid of what the right’s candidate will do. I’m not blaming anybody for this practice. In fact, I’ve done it too. I’ve supported candidates not because I love everything about them and truly support their mission, but because I’m afraid of what America will be like in the right’s hands. You may have done the same thing; if you have, you may have wished for a better option.

I’m here to tell you that there is a better option.

Several small municipalities such as Cambridge, Massachusetts have adopted the ranked choice system. Cambridge found that a median of 95% percent of voters saw one of their top three choices elected to city council.

Currently, only two states have adopted ranked choice voting for presidential general elections: Alaska and Maine. Neither state has had the system for more than 10 years, so it may be difficult to say how it’s faring, but it seems to have a positive effect on Maine. Constituents in Maine have elected to keep it, and sometimes candidates win enough of a majority that a voter’s vote need not go to their second choice.

For more information on ranked choice voting in Arizona, I recommend reading about Voter Choice Arizona, a group presently fighting for ranked choice voting here. To make your own ranked choice vote, like I did for my theater group, check out rankedvote.co.

Ranked choice voting should be the future of voting. It would make both state and federal elections better and reinvigorate excitement in our electoral system. Moreover, it would allow the left to make their voices heard. Instead of voting for a centrist you don’t really feel speaks for you, you could vote for someone who you feel shares all your same values and beliefs and still have the confidence that your vote matters. Support ranked choice voting and make your vote matter.

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Kate is a student at the University of Arizona. She loves improv comedy and comic books.