The Pathfinder: Ranked-choice voting coming to more statewide ballots in 2024
The presidential election will undoubtedly be the biggest political story in 2024. But it may not be the most interesting – or even the most consequential. The issue to watch in 2024 is more than 100 years old, but has only recently become a potentially transformative force in state and local elections.
Its name: ranked-choice or “instant runoff” voting. In 2023 there were 113 bills related to ranked-choice voting (RCV) in 38 states – some to allow the process, others to ban it. Currently, RCV is allowed in some form in 14 states, and banned outright in five.
What is ranked-choice voting? Unlike most elections, in which a candidate can win with a plurality of the vote, RCV requires a majority of the vote to win. In the most common form of RCV voting, candidates for a particular office appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. Voters rank those candidates on their ballot from most to least preferred. If a candidate gets a majority in the first round of voting, that candidate wins and the election is over. But if no candidate gets a majority, the winner is chosen through a series of what are effectively instant runoffs (you can read a more in-depth explanation here).
Ranked-choice voting has largely been used in local elections. Ashtabula, Ohio voters were first to adopt an RCV system in 1915 to elect their city council members. It wasn’t used in statewide elections until 2018, when Maine voters overrode their Legislature to become the first state to adopt RCV for all statewide elections, including primaries and general elections for governor, Congress, and the Legislature.
Alaska voters approved their own version of RCV in 2020. The state’s system generated national headlines in 2022, when Mary Peltola became the first woman – and the first Democrat in 49 years – to win the state’s at-large congressional district. Pro-RCV advocates pointed to the Alaska race as a prime example of how voters can use ranked choice to elect consensus candidates who run issue-oriented campaigns over more partisan extremes.
The Alaska outcome also became a prime example for ranked-choice opponents of how an overly complicated system confused voters and undermined the political parties – leading some to call Alaska’s RCV system a “scam.”
There are a host of arguments on both sides. For supporters, RCV encourages civility, expands voter choice, and produces consensus candidates. Opponents say it’s more complicated than the traditional “one-person, one vote” elections. They argue it can lead to lower voter turnout, delays in the election counting process, and requires more resources devoted to voter education.
And of course, there’s the partisan angle. Democratic and progressive activists tend to support RCV while Republicans and conservatives tend to oppose it. But the split isn’t as clean as it looks — both parties take issue with ranked choice voting.
Back in 2015, when Duluth voters were deciding on an RCV ballot measure, former Vice President Walter Mondale opposed the idea as ‘confusing and complex.’ And this past August, the D.C. Democratic Party filed a lawsuit to block a ranked-choice voting initiative from appearing on the ballot.
The Republican National Committee adopted a similar resolution opposing RCV earlier this year. But in 2021, Virginia Republicans used RCV to choose their gubernatorial nominee, a political neophyte named Glenn Youngkin, who would go on to defeat former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in the general election and end the GOP’s 12-year losing streak in statewide elections.
Nevada Question 3, the Top-Five Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative exemplifies this divide. It was on the ballot and approved in Nevada as an initiated constitutional amendment on Nov. 8, 2022. In Nevada, initiated constitutional amendments need to be approved in two even-numbered election years, meaning that Question 3 needs to be approved in 2022 and 2024 to amend the Nevada Constitution. As Question 3 was approved in 2022, a second vote will be held on Nov. 5, 2024. In Nevada, the most prominent Democratic federal and state officials all oppose Question 3, which is fundamentally the same measure that both Maine and Alaska approved in 2022.
It is understandable that some elected officials will not support the idea of an election system that might affect their future prospects. What’s also clear is that when RCV has appeared on the ballot, it tends to win. Many of those victories have occurred in local elections.
Next year promises to bring ranked-choice voting to more statewide ballots than ever before. Voters in Oregon will decide on a measure, along with Nevada, and statewide initiatives have also been proposed in six other states: Alaska (to repeal RCV), Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, and Montana. That’s why Ballotpedia has created a central hub containing all of the research, analysis, and reporting we’ve done (and will continue to do) on this important emerging issue.
The Pathfinder is a monthly column written by Leslie Graves, founder of Ballotpedia, for Preserving Democracy. Exploring topics vital to our understanding of American civics and Democracy, The Pathfinder attempts to cut through the noise of political journalism while exploring issues of vital importance to the American voter.
