State Lawmakers Should Follow The RNC’s Lead And Reject Ranked-Choice Voting

While most corporate media coverage of last week’s Republican National Committee (RNC) meeting was devoted to the contested leadership race between Ronna McDaniel and Harmeet Dhillon, the organization’s conference yielded a significant win for election integrity.

The RNC members unanimously voted against the use rank-choice voting (RCV). An RCV system allows voters to rank candidates according to their preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes in the first round of voting, the last-place finisher is eliminated, and his votes are reallocated to the voter’s second-choice candidate. The process continues until one candidate is elected to the majority.

“Traditional American primary and general elections ensure that voters who support one candidate, not a plurality of candidates, are heard clearly while ranked choice voting schemes open elections to ‘ballot exhaustion’ or the disenfranchisement of voters who choose not to support multiple candidates who do not clearly represent their values,” The RNC resolution reads. The committee voted against RCV. “similar schemes that increase election distrust, and voter suppression and disenfranchisement, eliminate the historic political party system, and put elections in the hands of expensive election schemes that cost taxpayers and depend exclusively on confusing technology and unelected bureaucrats to manage it.”

As The Federalist’s Victoria Marshall has reportedRCV support is mainly being driven by moderate Republicans and Democrat activists groups, in order to elect more conservative, establishment candidates. In Alaska, centrist Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski was behind the state’s adoption of an RCV system in 2020 to avoid accountability from voters during her 2022 reelection bid. Not only did RCV allow Murkowski to defeat Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka in the general election, it also gave Democrat Mary Peltola the boost she needed to beat Republican Sarah Palin for control of Alaska’s at-large congressional seat.

RCV Awareness Campaign – A National Push

RCV is currently used for elections in Alaska and Maine. But, state legislatures are pushing to expand it across the country.

According to a January NBC News report Report, “lawmakers in 14 states have introduced, filed and prefiled 27 bills that propose various iterations of ranked-choice voting.” For example, Connecticut’s two Democratic state representatives introduced two RCV laws last month. One Localities can adopt an RCV-style system. Other RCV must be used in Connecticut for both state and federal elections.

In Virginia, efforts to expand RCV are a bipartisan venture, with both Democrats and Republicans introducing a collective four bills on the subject during this year’s legislative session. GOP Del. Robert S. Bloxom, Jr. filed for a Bill This would allow political parties to use RCV in presidential primaries. The legislature’s remaining RCV-related bills (HB 1751, SB 1380And HB 2118) have since been passed by indefinitely or tabled by House and Senate committees.

Lynn Taylor, co-founder and president of the Virginia Institute, was interviewed by The Federalist.