In the United States, when only two candidates are on a ballot, the results are normally quite clear — the winner has a majority, or over 50% of the vote. But when there are three or more contenders, the vote can easily split in a way that allows for someone with less than 50% of the vote to win. Which means a majority of the votes were for someone other than the winner.
In order to combat this and other perceived shortcomings of the current voting system, some states have shifted (and more may be on the way) to an alternate voting method called ranked-choice voting.
Since the ballots allow voters to rank the candidates in order of preference, if no one has over 50% of the vote, there is no immediate winner.
The system calls for the person in last place to be eliminated and their votes to be redistributed to the candidate ranked second on each ballot. This process repeats until a candidate crosses the 50% threshold.
Ranked-choice voting is also referred to instant-runoff voting for this reason, and advocates claim that it can save money and time by streamlining a process that may require subsequent runoff elections to find a winner.
Alaska adopted ranked choice voting in 2022 for statewide elections. It has an open primary that allows citizens to vote for any candidate, with the top four vote-getters appearing on the final ranked choice ballot.
Examining how the 2022 Alaska congressional race was tabulated provides a good example of how ranked choice voting works in practice.
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Alaska and Maine are currently the only two states that use this style of voting for federal elections, though Hawaii uses ranked choice voting for its special elections.
It is being used by over 50 cities in the United States and has been in place for over 100 years in Australia and Ireland.
Since 2022, ranked choice voting has been banned in 10 states, and Missouri will vote to possibly ban the voting system in 2024. There are also four states and the District of Columbia that will vote on it in the upcoming election for statewide use.
Proponents of the new system argue that it will help elections break out of the two party system that is pervasive across America, and may decrease political polarization as a result. Opponents claim the system is too confusing and will dampen turnout. They also object to the fact that some ballots may become ‘exhausted’ – meaning all candidates ranked on those ballots have been eliminated – and the votes are not included in the final count.
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Publish date : 2024-10-23 21:03:00
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