Voters in states from Alaska to Missouri will make decisions this fall on the ranked-choice method to determine winners on Election Day.
Ranked-choice voting is an electoral system that allows people to list candidates on their ballot by order of preference. Essentially, it works as an instant runoff.
If no candidate receives 50% of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated from consideration and their votes are distributed among the remaining candidates. The eliminated candidate’s votes are given to whomever the individual voter chose as their second option. The process is repeated until one candidate reaches a majority.
Ranked-choice voting background
There are 14 states with at least one jurisdiction that exercises ranked-choice voting, according to Ballotpedia. Ten states have banned the voting method.
In 2018, Maine was the first state to use the ranked-choice voting system. During the same election, the system swung the outcome of a U.S. Senate seat. The second-place finisher on election night was able to overcome their deficit by eliminating votes for multiple candidates who finished far short of the majority needed to win.
Two years later, Alaska became the second state to adopt the voting method on a 50-49% vote. Hawaii followed suit in 2023.
Since 2021, New York City has used the voting method for primary and special elections. Plurality voting still is used for the city’s general elections.
Advocates contend that the ranked-choice voting process eliminates the need to have costly primary or runoff elections. They add it could discourage candidates from attacking their opponents in hopes of being ranked higher on ballots for voters who did not choose them first.
Critics counter that it is a more complicated and confusing method for voters to understand.
The voting method is not immune from flaws. A 2022 general election in Alameda County, Calif., used ranked-choice voting to determine the winner of a school director election. During an auditing process, it was found that county officials used the wrong method to tally votes.
As a result, the third-place finisher on election night was determined to be the winner.
2024 ballot questions
Voters in six states will decide Nov. 5 whether to adopt, repeal, or pre-empt ranked-choice voting.
Measures in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon will ask voters whether to adopt the voting method. On the other end, measures in Alaska and Missouri would repeal or pre-empt use of the method.
In Arizona and Montana, ballot measures do not require adoption of ranked-choice voting, but could result in its adoption if the legislatures decide to implement the proposals.
Already this year, the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma took legislative action to block the use of ranked-choice voting. LL
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