{"id":1931993,"date":"2023-05-16T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T00:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/if-texas-house-speaker-wants-secure-and-honest-elections-he-should-help-pass-this-bill-banning-ranked-choice-voting\/"},"modified":"2023-05-16T21:03:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T01:03:35","slug":"if-texas-house-speaker-wants-secure-and-honest-elections-he-should-help-pass-this-bill-banning-ranked-choice-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/if-texas-house-speaker-wants-secure-and-honest-elections-he-should-help-pass-this-bill-banning-ranked-choice-voting\/","title":{"rendered":"To ensure secure and honest elections, Texas&#8217; House Speaker should support the bill that prohibits ranked-choice voting."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fif-texas-house-speaker-wants-secure-and-honest-elections-he-should-help-pass-this-bill-banning-ranked-choice-voting%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1931993&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Will Texas Ban Ranked-Choice Voting?<\/h2>\n<p>The fate of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/andrew-yang-has-commanding-lead-in-nyc-mayoral-race-poll-shows\/\" title=\"Andrew Yang Has Commanding Lead In NYC Mayoral Race, Poll Shows\">ranked-choice voting<\/a> (RCV) in Texas rests in the hands of House Speaker Dade Phelan. The Texas Senate passed SB 921 in March, which would prohibit preferential voting and require candidates to receive a majority vote to be elected to public or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-government-warns-of-heightened-threat-ahead-of-midterms\/\" title=\"U.S. Government Warns of \"Heightened Threat\" Ahead of Midterms\">political party office<\/a>. The measure received bipartisan support, but has since been stalled in the House Committee on Elections.<\/p>\n<h3>What is Ranked-Choice Voting?<\/h3>\n<p>RCV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes in the first round of voting, the last-place finisher is eliminated, and their votes are reallocated to the voter\u2019s second-choice candidate. This process continues until one candidate receives a majority of votes.<\/p>\n<p>While Maine and Alaska are the only two states to employ RCV so far, their respective elections since implementing the system have produced outcomes that clearly contradict the desires of voters. In Maine, then-incumbent GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin lost to Democrat Jared Golden during the 2018 midterms, despite Poliquin winning the most votes in the first round of voting. Similarly, in Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola won the state\u2019s at<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/10-house-republicans-voted-to-impeach-trump-heres-where-they-stand-today\/\" title=\"10 House Republicans Voted to Impeach Trump: Here\u2019s Where They Stand Today\">-large congressional seat<\/a> last year even though \u201cnearly 60 percent of voters [cast] their ballots for a Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Why Ban Ranked-Choice Voting?<\/h3>\n<p>RCV has been criticized for being a \u201crigged-choice voting\u201d system that reduces transparency and puts voter confidence and certainty at risk. Various localities that have adopted RCV have also experienced confusing and even inaccurate election outcomes. In an Oakland school board race, for instance, \u201celection officials announced \u2014 two months after the fact \u2014 that they got the count wrong,\u201d resulting in the \u201crightful winner \u2026 suing for his seat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SB 921 sponsor and GOP Sen. Bryan Hughes did not respond to The Federalist\u2019s request for comment. If the bill does not pass the House by May 29, legislative efforts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-lawmakers-should-follow-the-rncs-lead-and-ban-ranked-choice-voting\/\" title=\"State Lawmakers Should Follow the RNC\u2019s Lead and Ban Ranked-choice Voting\">ban ranked-choice voting<\/a> in Texas elections will be stymied for another two years.<\/p>\n<h3>What is House Speaker Dade Phelan\u2019s Stance?<\/h3>\n<p>When pressed for comment on whether Phelan intends to use his position as speaker to help pass SB 921 and whether he supports RCV, Phelan\u2019s press secretary, Cassi Pollock, declined to comment on the matter, writing, \u201cOur office does not have a comment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth mentioning that Phelan received a substantial amount of support from House Democrats during his bid for speaker in 2021. Despite Republicans holding a majority in the chamber, Phelan selected Democrats to chair 13 of the House\u2019s 34 committees. During this year\u2019s session, Phelan reduced the number of Democrat committee chairs to eight following backlash from Texas conservatives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s deeply disappointing that the Speaker would continue to stall this bipartisan legislation needed now more than ever to protect free and fair Texas elections,\u201d said Ken Cuccinelli, chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative. \u201cAs the legislature nears adjournment \u2026 we urge the Speaker to allow consideration without delay.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>States That Have Banned Ranked-Choice Voting<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Florida<\/li>\n<li>Tennessee<\/li>\n<li>South Dakota<\/li>\n<li>Idaho<\/li>\n<li>Montana<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether Texas will join this list or become the next state to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/if-texas-house-speaker-wants-secure-and-honest-elections-he-should-help-pass-this-bill-banning-ranked-choice-voting\/\" title=\"To ensure secure and honest elections, Texas' House Speaker should support the bill that prohibits ranked-choice voting.\">embrace ranked-choice voting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author:<\/strong> Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas may ban ranked-choice voting (RCV) if House Speaker Dade Phelan approves SB 921. The bill requires candidates to receive a majority vote to be elected to a public or political party office or to receive a political party&#8217;s nomination. The Senate passed the bill in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1931994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[6571,11134,5934,3653,11132,9983,7160,5654,3723,3694,4351],"class_list":["post-1931993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-elections","tag-ensure","tag-honest","tag-house","tag-prohibits","tag-ranked-choice","tag-secure","tag-speaker","tag-support","tag-texas","tag-voting"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1931993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1931994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1931993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1931993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1931993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}