Michigan House passes ban on ranked-choice voting

Michigan House Bill 4707, which seeks to ban ranked-choice voting (RCV) statewide, passed the House of Representatives this past Wednesday by a vote of 57-44. Nine representatives (eight Democrats and one Republican) did not vote on the bill. 

If signed into law, HB 4707 would make clear that ranked-choice voting cannot be implemented in the five locales that have adopted it—Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Ferndale, Kalamazoo, and Royal Oak—in addition to preventing its future use throughout the state.

In the lead-up to the vote, Stop RCV coalition co-chairs Jason Snead and Trent England testified in support of the bill during a hearing in the House Election Integrity Committee this past Tuesday.

During his testimony, Trent England made a strong statement about the complexity of the system: 

“Ranked-choice voting makes it harder for voters, it makes it harder for the clerks running elections, it makes it harder to do tabulation, it makes it harder to trust, and it’s the wrong way for Michigan elections.”

You can watch Trent’s full testimony here.

Jason Snead made an important point about flaws inherent in the ranked-choice voting system: 

“With RCV, any election that spans multiple jurisdictions requires centralized tabulation. That would force Michigan to make substantial changes to the way you currently tabulate ballots. Harmonizing election data across vendors and jurisdictions would require third-party software that does not currently exist. That only compounds ranked-choice voting’s risk of error and delay.”

You can watch Jason’s full testimony here.

While the Rank MI Vote campaign is still working to collect signatures for its ranked-choice voting ballot proposal, House Bill 4707 is headed to the state Senate.