Edge cases like you describe are a key part of Ordinal voting systems, Cardinal voting systems are immune to that sort of thing.

Also, Cardinal voting systems can be super easy. Take Approval.

Simply take a list of names, and mark next to each candidate you approve of. If you feel like you need to have a moral conundrum over what you feel like approval means, then go ahead, but just mark the next to any or all of the names on the list that you like.

After that, the counting is simple as well. You add up the approval of each candidate, independent of what any other candidate gets, and then the winner is the one with the most approval.

It is literally impossible to elect an unpopular candidate via Approval, unless only unpopular candidates run.

STAR is slightly more complex, in that you rate each candidate on a scale of 0-5. Again, no one actually cares about your personal journey in rating someone a 4 or whatnot, just do it and move on.

Then when counting, you again add up the numbers, take the highest two, and see where they rate on each individual ballot. If one is rated higher than the other, they get the vote from that ballot.

Changing the voting system so that third parties are actually possible.

You need a cardinal voting system, otherwise you’ll fall prey to Durverger’s Law and Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem.

I favor STAR, it’s the best system designed to date.

That “waste product” isn’t just thrown away.

They’re still hydrocarbons. Which are used in other places or burned for fuel… Which isn’t actually all that great for the environment…

Actually, tossing the waste product in a pit might be better, environmentally speaking.