Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to vote for the least horrible candidate? If you could vote for who you wanted without feeling like you're throwing your vote away?
If we had ranked choice voting, we'd have better legislators in office to start with. And if they used it in the speaker votes this could be resolved already.
You don't have to have a ranking if you vote for one person once. You can't "force" a person to vote.
Yes they can. They can 100% change the voting procedure to require a vote or an abstention. In a ranked choice vote, they can be required to rank all potential options.