Ranked choice voting dealt blow by voters, rejected in numerous states

Ranked choice voting suffered a blow as several states, including Nevada, Oregon, Colorado and Idaho rejected measures last week. 

In Colorado, Proposition 131 would have created an open primary system for candidates of any party and the top four vote-getters would move on to the general election, after voters ranked their choices from first to last. 

‘The ranked choice voting movement has pushed really hard to convince everyone it’s a great idea,’ data scientist Seth Werfel told Colorado Public Radio. ‘It has some merits but it’s not a slam dunk, and I think voters are skeptical of anything that they can’t immediately understand.’

In Idaho, Proposition 1 would also have ended the party primary system. 

It was rejected by nearly 70% of the voters. 

‘You need a scandal, you need corruption, you need something that’s happening statewide to make the case to pass something complicated like this,’ CalTech professor Michael Alvarez told Boise State Public Radio. ‘I’m not super deeply immersed in the politics of these various states, but I don’t see that common ‘why’ there.’

Oregon’s ranked choice voting measure, Proposition 117, was rejected by 58% of the voters. 

‘Voters this year were reluctant to make dramatic changes to the way they vote,’ Chandler James, who teaches political science at the University of Oregon, told Oregon Public Radio. ‘But I don’t think that it spells the end for ranked choice voting in the future.’

A similar measure in Nevada was rejected by 53% of voters. The same measure was passed by nearly 6% in 2022, but Nevada measures that require amendments to the state constitution don’t go into effect until they’re passed in two consecutive elections, according to the Nevada Independent. 

Ranked choice voting is already used statewide in Alaska and Maine and places like New York City, but in Alaska a measure to repeal it looks like it could pass narrowly. Hawaii uses ranked choice voting for some special elections. 

And in Missouri, voters approved a constitutional amendment banning ranked choice voting. 

‘We believe in the one person, one vote system of elections that our country was founded upon,’ Missouri state Sen. Ben Brown, who sponsored the measure, previously said in an interview, according to NPR. 

Other states that have bans on ranked choice voting include Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee and Florida.