Have we reached peak RCV?
by Harry Roth
Not too long ago, RCV felt like an unstoppable force. Cities and counties all over the country were rushing to adopt the broken system. The media was hailing it as the hot new election reform. But sometime last year, something changed.
Ranked-choice voting bans were signed into law in Montana, Idaho, and South Dakota. The DC Democratic Party came out against a proposed ballot measure in the District, and the Massachusetts Attorney General flat out rejected an initiative to implement RCV in Boston.
So far, 2024 hasn’t been any kinder to ranked-choice voting. Bills to ban RCV have passed at least one chamber in five state legislatures:
- Georgia Senate Bill 355 passed the state Senate at the end of January and is now in the House of Representatives.
- Iowa House File 2610 passed the state House of Representatives earlier this month and is now in the Senate.
- Louisiana Senate Bill 101 passed the state Senate earlier this week and is now in the House of Representatives.
- Oklahoma House Bill 3156 passed the state House of Representatives last week and is now in the Senate.
- Utah House Bill 290 passed the state House of Representatives and died in the Senate late last month.
Similar bills are currently working their way through House and Senate committees in Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Missouri, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The Alaskan ranked-choice voting repeal campaign’s signatures were verified by the Alaska Division of Elections at the beginning of the month. If the repeal is successful this November, it will deal a major blow to far-left election groups like Fairvote and Unite America that played a big role in passing RCV in 2020.
One thing is certain; states are taking serious steps to protect their voters from ranked-choice voting. We’ll continue to keep you updated as the year progresses.