Ranked-choice voting (RCV) continues to gain momentum nationwide, as voters in several cities approved referendums during the midterm elections to implement the nonpartisan multiple-choice ballot system in future elections.
In addition to voters in Seattle; Portland, Oregon; and Fort Collins, Colorado, endorsing RCV electoral systems, Nevadans also adopted, by a 52.9-to-47.1 percent margin, a proposed Top-Five Ranked Choice Voting Initiative on Nov. 8.
If Nevada voters approve the ballot measure again in 2024—state law requires that proposed constitutional amendments be approved twice to be implemented—the Silver State would join Alaska and Maine as states that use some version of RCV for all elections.
“Ranked-choice voting is the fastest-growing election reform movement in the country,” Deb Otis, director of research for Maryland-based FairVote, told The Epoch Times. “We see a lot of opportunities moving forward.”
Since the Nov. 8 elections, the Arlington County Board of Supervisors voted to “test out” RCV in the Virginia county’s June primaries for 2023 local elections, and the Redondo Beach, California, City Council agreed to place an RCV referendum before local voters on March 5, Otis said.
On an RCV ballot, voters aren’t limited to picking one candidate and a winner isn’t declared until one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes.
If no candidate receives “50 percent plus one,” the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and the votes are counted again. If a voter’s top choice was eliminated, that vote is given to that voter’s second-choice candidate. The process is repeated until one candidate tops 50 percent.
Supporters, such as FairVote and the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center in Goldsboro, North Carolina, maintain election winners should have more than 50 percent support of the electorate, and that RCV limits the “spoiler” effect of minor-party candidates chipping away at incumbents’ advantages.
Opponents include both major political parties and several conservative organizations that say the process is too cumbersome, leads to more electoral stalemates, and would require a significant investment in technology to upgrade voting systems to allocate and reallocate votes.
Virginia-based Honest Elections Project (HEP), which is spearheading election integrity initiatives across numerous states, maintains that RCV is “an unwise policy that complicates voting and risks disenfranchising voters.”
HEP Executive Director Jason Snead told The Epoch Times that his organization is “gearing up” to oppose a growing number of “state initiatives in the works,” calling RCV a “new challenge” that is “raising a lot of problems,” including the extended time it can take to determine winning and losers.
RCV wouldn’t “do anything to improve voter turnout or bolster voter confidence in the elections,” he said, calling it “an unnecessary reform” being primarily pushed by progressives.
RCV was first adopted on a statewide basis in the United States in 2016 by voters in Maine for state Legislature and governor elections. In June 2018, voters agreed to expand RCV to all state and congressional primary and general elections for Congress.
In 2019, Maine lawmakers extended RCV to presidential elections, starting with the 2020 general election and continuing in 2024 for both primary and general elections for president.
In November 2020, voters in Alaska adopted Ballot Measure No. 2 (pdf), a constitutional amendment sponsored by Alaskans for Better Elections, to implement RCV for all elections, beginning with 2022 elections.
Voters also have rejected several RCV measures, including in Massachusetts in 2020. Citizen petition efforts to get RCV proposals on the ballot failed to collect the required number of signatures in North Dakota in 2020 and Missouri in 2022.
More than 50 municipalities across 10 states, however, have adopted the process, including New York City, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.
In Utah, state lawmakers in 2018 passed a local option bill to allow municipalities to use RCV in local elections. Salt Lake City is among the 23 cities and counties that have adopted the system as part of a six-year pilot program to test the voting system.
That lawmakers in Alaska, Virginia, and Utah—where Republicans hold majorities in at least one if not both state legislative chambers—have adopted RCV legislation refutes opponents’ claims that the voting system is exclusively supported by progressives, Otis said.
”The Virginia Republican Party uses ranked-choice voting,” she said, noting that is how current Gov. Glenn Youngkin emerged from a crowded GOP primary in 2021 to win the party’s nod and ensuing general election.
“We’re also seeing the Utah Republican Party embrace raced-choice voting,” Otis said. “In Alaska, Republicans are doing well statewide” in RCV elections with voters in November “electing a moderate Republican for the Senate, a conservative governor, and a moderate Democrat for the House.”
In the Alaska U.S. Senate race, incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) defeated fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka in the Nov. 8 general election by nearly 7.5 percent.
Incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, cruised to victory in a crowded field with 50.3 percent of the vote, while in the race for Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House, Democrat Mary Peltola defeated a crowded field that included two high-profile Republicans, eventually dispatching former Gov. Sarah Palin in a runoff by 54.9-to-45.1 percent.
“Both parties can, and do, succeed in ranked-choice voting,” Otis said. “We’re seeing Republicans and Democrats embrace this.”
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, more than 50 RCV proposals have been introduced in 22 state legislatures since 2018.
“The biggest obstacle we face is just that this is new. Some voters have not heard of it,” Otis said, but something most voters recognize is “something is wrong in our elections” and have proven to be amenable to RCV.
Otis said Maine and Alaska will both use ranked-choice voting in the 2024 presidential general election. Maine will use RCV in its 2024 primaries, as well, she said. “We hope (Alaska Republicans) consider using ranked-choice voting as the Alaska Democrats did in 2020.”
FairVote and other RCV proponents will lobby state lawmakers in 2023 sessions to allow RCV to be more widely used in the 2024 presidential primaries.
She said Democrats in four states—Kansas, Wyoming, Hawaii, and Alaska—used RCV in 2020 presidential primaries and garnered positive responses from voters.
Using RCV for primaries will “ensure there are no wasted votes,” she said, noting that often in primaries, especially in states that stage qualifying elections late in the cycle, some candidates remain on the ballot even after they’ve dropped out.
“In 2024, we’re hoping to expand” RCV in presidential primaries, Otis said. “Time for states to move ahead and adopt it (during 2023 sessions) so they have it in place for 2024.”
The system has been adopted at local levels but not implemented in seven states, including Florida and Tennessee. Lawmakers in both states during their 2022 sessions adopted bills precluding RCV in state-level and local elections.
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