A Republican Ohio lawmaker introduced a bill into the Ohio Senate to prohibit the use of ranked-choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, in the state.
Senate Bill (SB) 137, sponsored by State Senator Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green), would prohibit ranked choice voting in all elections in Ohio except for those conducted in municipalities or chartered counties.
A ranked-choice voting system is an electoral system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If no candidate receives an initial majority of the electorate’s first-choice votes, the candidate with the least amount of first-choice ballots drops out and ballots for the eliminated candidate reallocate to each voter’s second-choice candidate. Until a winner receives a majority, the procedure of eliminating the candidate with the fewest ballots and redistributing votes to other candidates repeats.
Voters can use ranked-choice voting in general elections and primaries, sometimes with varying outcomes. Ranked choice voting may narrow the field of candidates from several parties in a general election to just a handful. Voters may use ranked choice voting to choose the victors in a party primary system.
According to an e-mailed press release to reporters from Gavarone, ranked-choice voting distorts election outcomes and therefore needs to be stopped in Ohio.
“Ranked choice voting, in its most basic form, distorts election outcomes. If implemented in Ohio, it would undo more than two centuries of voters having the ability to cast their vote with one vote and one voice, and alter our elections to look similar to the way it’s done in New York City and San Francisco,” Gavarone said.
To increase election integrity and voter confidence, the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation Gavarone wrote last year that offered Ohioans earlier access to election results.
Gavarone said that ranked-choice voting notoriously delays election outcomes by days or weeks, and the outcomes are notoriously more ambiguous.
“On top of causing delays in Ohioans receiving election results, ranked-choice voting has been proven to decrease voter turnout, create confusion because of complex election procedures and silence the voices of voters. Ohio is a national leader in the way we run our elections, and the surest way to undermine that would be to implement ranked-choice voting,” Gavarone said.
SB 137 aims to restrict ranked choice voting in all elections in Ohio, except those held in municipalities or chartered counties, as the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1923. If a municipality or chartered county chooses to use ranked choice voting, the measure would disqualify them from receiving the Local Government Fund payouts.
According to Gavarone, ranked-choice voting “has no place in Ohio.”
Gavarone introduced SB 137 into the Senate. It currently awaits committee assignment for further consideration.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Background Photo “Voting Booths” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.Â
