Kentucky becomes the sixth state to ban ranked-choice voting

While multiple state legislatures have advanced bills banning ranked-choice voting this year, Kentucky came from behind and passed one while no one was looking.

Kentucky House Bill 44 was initially vetoed by Governor Beshear, but luckily for Kentuckians, his veto was overridden by the legislature. The bill makes important improvements to voter list maintenance, and had language added to ban ranked-choice voting. By overriding the Governor's veto, the state legislature made a strong move to protect their citizens from election delays, ballot exhaustion, and confusion.

The co-chairmen of Stop Ranked-Choice Voting thanked legislators for their bold and beneficial action.

“Kentucky legislators are standing up for voters,” said Trent England. “RCV makes the whole process more difficult: it takes longer to vote, with more opportunities for mistakes and spoiled ballots. This puts an added burden on poll workers and election officials. Then, the system relies on computer technology that lacks transparency and accountability. Thankfully, an overwhelming majority of Kentucky legislators stood up against RCV and for the normal election process.”

"Ranked-choice voting makes it harder to vote and harder to trust the results of elections,” Jason Snead said. “Ranked-choice voting’s record is a long list of failed promises and frustrated voters. That’s why so many places that try ranked-choice voting go on to repeal it. I applaud Kentucky lawmakers and Secretary of State Michael Adams for making Kentucky the sixth state to ban ranked-choice voting. Kentucky voters deserve free and fair elections where it is easy to vote and hard to cheat."

Hopefully, other state legislatures will follow Kentucky’s lead and protect their own voters from RCV.