Republicans Must Stand Up to Ranked-Choice Voting

While practices like ballot harvesting continue to pose a serious threat to election integrity in the United States, another pernicious scheme to undermine the democratic will of the voters – and specifically dash the electoral prospects of Republican candidates – is the spread of ranked-choice voting (RCV)...

Currently, only two states - Alaska and Maine - use RCV in statewide elections. However, as of last January, lawmakers in 14 states had introduced 27 bills proposing RCV models, a sign of the system’s increasing momentum nationwide...

A look at the results in states that have adopted RCV quickly reveals that the practice has been a huge boon for Democrats, particularly in solid red states.

During last fall’s midterm election season, for instance, Ranked Choice Voting was widely credited with the losses of conservative candidates like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who came up short against Democrat Mary Peltola in a U.S. House special election, despite Alaska’s enduring status as a solid red state.

“Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said after Peltola was declared the winner. “60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat ‘won.’”...

As Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow and election law expert at the Heritage Foundation, noted, Ranked Choice Voting is really nothing more than “a scheme to disconnect elections from issues and allow candidates with marginal support from voters to win elections.” He continued: “In the end, it is all about political power, not about what is best for the American people and for preserving our great republic. So-called [RCV] reformers want to change process rules so they can manipulate election outcomes to obtain power.”...

The Threat of Ranked Choice Voting, 10 March 2023

Democrat Defeats Palin in Alaska: Rank Choice Voting and Mail-in Ballots, Gateway Pundit Thursday, 1 September 2022

The problem with ranked-choice voting, American Thinker, 13 February 2023

Hans von Spakovsky: Ranked Choice Voting Leads to Voter Disenfranchisement :

Ranked Choice Voting Explained: Confusing, Chaotic Election "Reform" Pushed by Leftist Donors, Heritage Foundation, June 2023:

Learn more about Ranked Choice Voting. 

Ranked Choice Voting Disaster, 9 April 2024.

The many failures of ranked choice voting, by Emmaline Merrill, American Thinker, 25 July 2024.