That's just factually inaccurate. In 1776 some guys said the states get to choose how to handle voting. Thebstates still don'thave to donthat, and some don't. Alaska has been in the news nust this week because its ranked-choice voting keeps the 2 Sullivans from creating a spoiler effect from voter confusion.

And even then, Senators weren't directly elected until 1914 - prior to the 17th Amendment they were appointed by the State legislatures.

states aren't forced to use first past the post voting, they choose to.

I was a ranked choice voting fan, but this swayed me towards STAR voting. RCV would still be far better then First-past-the-post of course.

Alaska has it since 2022(, and Maine for federal elections).
However, a same ranked-choice voting election doesn't mean the same outcome, since we also need to decide on the way to count the votes(, e.g., Ranked Pairs, Schulze, ..., or even Borda count, STAR voting, ...). Concretely, as a result of Alaska's instant run-off system of "exhausted ballots"(, i.e., if a voter's ranked candidates have all been eliminated, their ballot no longer contributes to the final round,) Nick Begich(Rep.) ended up eliminated first, despite being the Condorcet winner, since he would have beaten both Mary Peltola(Dem.) and Sarah Palin(Rep.) in head-to-head.
To be noted that, yesterday, alaskans voted in a referendum 51-49(, final results still unclear yet,) to keep the ranked-choice voting.

I'm very much in favor of real/direct democracy(, e.g. sortition to prepare the laws later submitted via referendum, as in ancient Greece), but in the meantime ranked-choice voting isn't enough :
- We could/should counter this "winner takes all" through proportional representation, i.e., a party receiving 20% of the votes would receive 20% of the seats. Ranked-choice make it easier to vote 3rd party, but proportionality(, which Alaska doesn't have,) increases the chances of them getting a seat ;
- There should be campaign-finance reforms, as well as an equal mediatic representativity ;
- an end to gerrymandering of course(, even though proportional representation would already reduce it) ;
- perhaps an open primary like in Alaska, where all candidates compete in the same primary, regardless of political party ;
- and more(, e.g., why should there be only one representative per congressional district ?)

The thing is that we all agree that there are problems, and we all agree that solutions exists(, better than the ones quickly sketched here), that these solutions would solve these problems. There's a lack of will, just like the disparition of investigative journalism, which is a vital public service, as important as hospitals/firefighters/.., that should be financed by our taxes. Among other things for which there's neither a lack of widespread complaints nor viable solutions.

Sam is running for congress, with a message that's crystal clear : instead of bombing houses/schools/hospitals/.. we should be building those things here