Utah's failed ranked-choice voting experiment
by Harry Roth
Legislation to extend Utah’s ranked-choice voting pilot program for another ten years is struggling to advance in the state legislature. A bill to end the program early passed the Utah House of Representatives last year. Though it never reached the governor's desk, it was a clear symbol of the legislature's lack of interest in continuing the state’s failed RCV experiment.
Utah first launched its Municipal Alternate Voting Methods Pilot Project in 2019 after former Governor Gary Herbert signed House Bill 35 into law.
In 2021, the pilot program expanded to include 23 cities. Since then, however, multiple cities have decided to opt out of the program.
One prominent city to do so was Riverton in 2023. After opting in during the program’s 2021 expansion, city officials soon realized they had gotten more than they bargained for. The Riverton City Council believed they were misled by RCV advocates who claimed the system would save the city money. Another major factor in their decision to leave the program was voter trust. Riverton City Council member Andy Pierucci summed it up by saying:
“The question I kept asking is, ‘Why would we do something to upset our process when trust is plummeting so much already?”
When Utah first implemented its pilot program, ranked-choice voting was seen as a promising new system. But reality has since set in, and voters and legislators alike are responding by rejecting—or in many cases, outright banning—the election scheme.
Since 2019, eleven cities have withdrawn from the pilot program after experiencing firsthand the delays and confusion associated with ranked-choice voting. The Utah state legislature should allow the program to phase out and bring an end to its experiment with RCV.