Will Idaho voters reject ranked-choice voting?

Idaho, a state known for its potatoes, winding rivers, and breath-taking mountain ranges, may soon be known for something else... defeating ranked-choice voting twice.

Last year, Idaho banned ranked-choice voting statewide. Nine other states have taken similar steps to protect their voters from a complicated voting system known for delays and ballot elimination. However, Proposition 1 would undo the efforts of the state legislature by requiring the state to use RCV.

So far, big money donors have contributed more than $1 million to accomplish this goal. The largest backer of Prop 1 is a name you’re probably familiar with by now. Unite America is a left-wing “election reform” organization that has spent millions of dollars pushing RCV on states and locales across the country. The $275,000 they’ve spent on Prop 1 is really a drop in the bucket from their prospective.

Idahoans don’t have to take a chance on RCV to see the damage it causes. Their neighbor California allows municipalities to use ranked-choice voting, and the results have been abysmal, to say the least. In 2022, a computer glitch changed the results of a local school board election, forcing Alameda County to undergo a long auditing process. It took months for them to determine the actual winner. Voters in San Francisco, which has been using RCV for 20 years, are also having difficulty understanding it. So much so that SFGATE, a local publication, still publishes annual explainers.

Voters in Alaska are poised to repeal RCV, and Missouri and Arizona are on the verge of banning it. You might say that hopping on the ranked-choice voting bandwagon now would be like boarding the Titanic.