The Ranked Choice Voting Act reintroduced in Congress
by Harry Roth
Earlier this week, Congressmen Jamie Raskin and Don Beyer and Senator Peter Welch reintroduced the Ranked Choice Voting Act. Rep. Raskin, a proponent of election schemes like the National Popular Vote interstate compact and ranked-choice voting (RCV), first introduced the same bill in 2019 and is a former board member and close ally of the one of RCV’s biggest funders, FairVote.
The bill would mandate the use of RCV for all primary and general congressional races beginning in 2030. Luckily for the country, its chances of passing in this congress are slim, but if this bill were ever enacted, it would force states to go through the same electoral struggles as Maine and Alaska.
Since adopting RCV back in 2016, weeks-long delays have been a regular occurrence for Mainers. Maine 2nd Congressional District election results have been delayed for three election cycles in a row. Alaska, the only other state that uses RCV, has also had to deal with delays during the 2022 and 2024 House and Senate races.
Alaska’s and Maine’s experiments with ranked-choice voting have proven what a disaster the system is, especially in congressional elections. Imposing RCV on every state in the country, including the 17 states that have banned the system, would open the door to delays, ballot elimination, technical glitches, and voter confusion.