The race to ban RCV continues

Last year, six states banned ranked choice voting, bringing the total number of states where RCV is outlawed to eleven. Now, just weeks into 2025, legislation banning the system has been filed in Iowa, South Carolina, Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Kansas. While it's still too early to tell, 2025 could surpass 2024 as the worst year ever for ranked-choice voting.

These aggressive moves by the states aren't just the result of messaging by opponents like us. They're the direct result of ranked-choice voting's many well-documented failures in places like Maine and Alaska, where it led to weeks-long delays, or in cities like Oakland, California, where it led to the election of the now-recalled and recently indicted Mayor Sheng Thao.

If these examples aren't enough for state legislators still on the fence about banning ranked-choice voting, then they should look at what's happening in New York City. The mayoral race is less than a year away, and far-left candidates are already coming up with a plan to game the system to block moderates from winning.

Over in Iowa, Senate File 2380 has been proposed by the Secretary of State, Paul Pate, to prevent ranked-choice voting from taking hold. Senate File 2380 was included with a slate of other election integrity bills to prevent non-citizen voting and improve the ballot recounting process.

Texas State Senator Bryan Hughes recently prefiled a bill to ban RCV statewide. He made the following statement on X (formerly Twitter,) announcing his legislation and criticizing the broken election scheme:

Over the last two years, states have been in a race to ban ranked-choice voting, fearing delayed results, longer lines at the polls, convoluted ballots, and technical issues. That race is only picking up steam in 2025, with no clear end in sight.