Have you noticed that two universally despised candidates are running for President? They were selected by the "base" voters who overwhelm the (mostly closed) primary elections, leaving sensible voters with only the most extreme candidates come the general election. If sensible moderates knew they would still be on the ballot in November, more of them might run for office, and the American voters might be able to vote for sensible candidates. If we could rank all the candidates, no one would ever be able to make the foolish argument about a vote for the saint actually being a vote for the devil. We'd be able to put the devil at the bottom of the rankings and put our heartfelt saint at the top.