I like the article a lot, Ben! And as I'm sure you're aware electoral reform could have much further reaching further-reaching consequences than just improving Presidential debates: like moving the US away from a two-party system.

I wonder though if, in the context of a Presidential debate, this logic would really work? For instance, we're assuming that Presidential campaign managers are even *trying* to win the Independent 3rd-Party votes. If this election is anything to go by, the main focus is non-voters. Trump's ability to awaken the largest non-voting demographic in America - non college educated white males - could be the defining move of this election. In this case, Trump couldn't care less about tapping into the 6% of independents, he's far more concerned with reaching out to the 45% (on average) of the population who don't even go to the ballot stations at all.

You could perhaps make the argument that having an RCV type system - which I fully support, by the way - would bring more people out anyway as they can select a party which, more fits their beliefs. However it would still need to bring out unprecedented numbers in order for the main parties to take notice and lean on that 3rd, voting demographic.