RCV ban bill is headed to Governor DeWine
by Staff Report
Ohio Senate Bill 63 has now passed both chambers of the Ohio Legislature after the Senate approved a final version on March 4. The bill bans ranked-choice voting (RCV) statewide. It first passed the state Senate last May and is now headed to Governor DeWine’s desk.
As mentioned, the bill both bans RCV and penalizes any local government that tries to use RCV by withholding its entire annual distribution from the Local Government Fund to ensure compliance.
None of this would’ve been possible without Senator Theresa Gavarone, who introduced the bill last January and worked tirelessly to get it passed. The senator introduced a similar RCV ban bill in 2023.
Ohio is on track to become the second state to ban RCV this year and the 19th state to ban it overall. There’s a reason multiple Ohio cities repealed it around a century ago, showing that even before computers, RCV was a convoluted system that makes voting and administering elections much more difficult.
Thank you to the Ohio Legislature for getting SB63 over the finish line. Governor DeWine is expected to sign the ban into law.