Time changes and ranked choice voting

This article claims that Americans are “hopelessly deadlocked” when it comes to the question of whether and how to change the current status quo in re seasonal clock shifting. A poll last week found the following preferences:

Change to permanent Daylight Savings Time: 31%

Keep the status quo: 21%

Change to permanent Standard Time: 19%

Not sure which between these two options: 17%

Want to change from status quo, but no preference which change: 11%

Comments:

(1) I’m very surprised that more than one in five people want to keep the status quo. I thought the one thing everyone agreed on was that switching the clocks twice a year is awful.

(2) The article goes on to make a bunch of arguments about how sleep experts, circadian rhythm gurus etc. all prefer standard time, because it’s more “natural.” Hey bubonic plague is natural too. Also, these arguments tend to ignore that each time zone itself varies by one whole hour in regard to when the sun comes up and sets, depending where you are in it, so the circadian rhythm argument seems kind of bogus. Plus I really hate early sunsets in the winter which is the important thing here.

(3) More substantively, it’s a sad comment on the narrowness of thinking about voting in this culture — paging Gregor Sansa — that this article doesn’t even mention ranked choice voting, given that this appears to be an ideal subject where RCV would provide much-needed clarification. Do the people who hate the idea of year-round standard time hate it with the heat of a thousand suns, like I do? If so, then the “hopeless deadlock” on this issue disappears pretty fast now doesn’t it?

My own preferences would be:

Year-round DST>>>>>>>Keep Switching Back and Forth>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Standard Time All the Time