Jason Snead, the director of the Honest Elections Project Action Fund, said the practice of Ranked-Choice Voting is a tool used by the Left to “push politics to the left” and “give more power to the left-wing mega-donors.”
Ranked-Choice Voting, an election process where voters can rank multiple candidates for a single office, is currently used statewide in the states of Alaska and Maine, cities including New York City, and other jurisdictions across the nation.
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As ranked-choice voting gains momentum across the U.S., the campaign supporting the system is funded by a few liberal dark money groups run by mega-donors who seek to replace the influence of political parties with their own, according to Honest Election Project Action, (HEPA) an election integrity advocate.
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A pair of DFL lawmakers who fell short last year of gaining enough support in the legislature to turn Minnesota into a ranked-choice voting state aren’t giving up on their goal. They’ve just scaled back their efforts to more incremental steps.
On Wednesday, a committee in the state House approved a bill that would make it easier for cities across the state to implement ranked-choice voting as a method of electing local representation.
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Bills to ban ranked-choice voting are causing passionate debate over a method to cast ballots that some say is fairer and some say is confusing and could lower voter turnout.
Ranked-choice voting allows people to rank the candidates, with “one” being their favorite. The votes are tallied in rounds. After the first round, the candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated. The voter’s second preference is then added to the tally. The process continues until a winner is determined.
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As the 2024 election cycle begins, the Honest Elections Project releases its report on 14 election reforms that states should make to protect the integrity of elections.
With the 2024 presidential primary elections underway, a bipartisan election integrity watchdog has released its updated report on election reforms that they say will help secure their elections. Some of these reforms have been considered or implemented in various states since the 2020 presidential election, during which there were numerous irregularities and inequities.
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The Georgia Senate passed a measure Friday to bar ranked-choice voting in the state.
The chamber passed Senate Bill 355 by a 31-19 margin.
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The election process known as ranked choice voting isn’t compatible with one of the oldest state constitutions in America, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, says.
Tong released an 11-page legal opinion Tuesday stating that the system of voting, which allows voters to rank their choices of candidates, violates at least two standing provisions of the Connecticut Constitution. The state’s attorney general said it was a “close call,” however.
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Ranked choice voting, in which voters rank candidates on a ballot rather than choose one, may harm black and Native American voters disproportionately, according to a new study by a Princeton University professor.
Minority candidates also may be undercut by ranked choice voting, said Nolan McCarty, a professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and vice dean for academic assessment.
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Georgia Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones (R) and State Senator Randy Robertson (R-Cataula) introduced SB 355 on Tuesday to ban ranked choice voting in the state.
Jones said in a statement that ranked choice voting “is designed to cause confusion and fatigue among voters.” Allegedly “pushed by dark money groups,” Jones added it “could cause a drastic increase in the number of ballots being thrown out, disenfranchising Georgia voters.”
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The American Legislative Exchange Council held their national annual conference in Scottsdale last week, which included a pre-session for legislators with the Honest Elections Project (HEP). HEP is focusing on three issues relating to elections currently, and is proposing draft model legislation that legislators can introduce on a few issues. One is Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), which is gearing up to be a huge fight on the 2024 ballot in Arizona.
Three progressive groups are pushing RCV in Arizona. However, the Arizona Legislature has also referred a proposition to the ballot in 2024 that would stop RCV. HEP has extensively looked into how RCV works, and determined that it ends up putting far left Democrats into office, not moderates as some would expect. HEP’s fact sheet went over several races where it was used and showed how it facilitates this, undermining the Constitution’s principle of one person, one vote.
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U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Mitt Romney recently praised Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV), lauding it respectively as “mesmerizing…we should do it” and “a superior way to proceed.” But the two lawmakers are wrong.
Their statements might ring true if they understood they are endorsing a system that encourages fringe candidates and skews election outcomes.
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A group of leading election fraud deniers spoke at an event in downtown Phoenix put on by the civic organization Arizona Talks. The forum was moderated by Steve Goldstein, a longtime PBS host who recently moved on to join Save Democracy AZ, which is pushing open primaries. The panelists consisted of failed Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Jackie Salit, president of Independent Voting.
Goldstein said he supports rank-choice voting. He said since the Arizona Legislature isn’t getting the reforms passed that he wants, he recommends a version of ranked-choice voting to select legislators and members of Congress since he said their seats are gerrymandered — that picks the top two for those offices. He complained that members of the two parties no longer cross the aisle to vote with the other side, implying that the Republicans in the legislature aren’t compromising as much as they used to. The 2023 legislature is one of the most conservative in recent years, with several brand-new legislators scoring at the top of conservative ratings.
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A city in the west metro Twin Cities has become ground zero in a larger battle waged by well-funded progressive activists to turn Minnesota into a ranked-choice voting state. And Ellen Cousins might be the woman to stop FairVote MN in its tracks.
The Minnetonka resident has held several volunteer positions on city commissions and within her local school district over the last three decades. She’s now channeling her zeal for civics and community service into a grassroots movement to repeal ranked-choice voting as a method of electing city officials in Minnetonka. And the more voters Cousins and her volunteers reach as the Nov. 7 election draws near, the more they believe momentum is on their side.
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As ranked-choice voting gains momentum, election integrity advocates are fighting back over what the call a “confusing” voting system that they say would give the left more power.
Ranked-choice voting is an election process being introduced across the country, amid pushback from some states, including efforts to ban it.
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Is HF1830 a bill that funds state government operations? Or is it an “elections bill?”
It depends who you ask.
Rep. Ginny Klevorn, DFL-Plymouth, who carried the bill in the House, says it’s maybe a little bit of both.
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Three Pennsylvania House Democrats this week proposed allowing localities to adopt ranked-choice voting (RCV) in municipal elections.
Under such a system, in an election with more than two candidates for one office, voters would rank their options rather than choose just one.
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Pennsylvania Senators Ryan Aument (R-Lititz) and Frank Farry (R-Langhorne) on Wednesday proposed creating runoff primary elections in the Keystone State.
The two lawmakers wrote in a memorandum describing their legislation that they want to ensure that all major-party nominees have the support of at least half of participants in a primary. Their bill would require a second primary contest between the top two vote-getters in the initial nomination election whenever no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote. Aument and Farry clarified that their bill would not apply to general elections.
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Philadelphia’s Democratic voters nominated Cherelle Parker in Tuesday’s mayoral primary election.
The former state representative and former ninth-district city councilwoman will face a downhill general-election battle against David Oh (R-At-Large) whose bid for the Republican nod was uncontested.
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Florida elections have come a long way since the “hanging chad” debacle of 2000. During the 2022 midterms, the state reported the results of all elections within two hours of polls closing, and a new report examines the election law changes that have been credited for the turnaround.
The 2000 presidential election between then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and then-Vice President Al Gore was decided by the 25 electoral votes from Florida, which didn’t announce its results until five weeks after Election Day.
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Camelback Strategy Group (CSG), a consulting firm associated with the moderate and McCain wing of the Republican Party, appears to be aligning itself with an effort to institute ranked-choice voting in Arizona. Matt Kenney, a partner and vice president with the group and former associate of the late Sen. John McCain, sent an email from his CSG account on April 24 to undisclosed recipients stating that Save Democracy Arizona is looking for a political director to oversee a ballot initiative effort for ranked-choice voting.
The Kari Lake War Room Twitter account tweeted a copy of the email, stating, “RINO Consulting firm Camelback Strategies goes all in for Ranked Choice Voting. They can’t get their establishment candidates elected anymore. So they’re just going to rig the primaries. This would be the death of free & fair elections in Arizona. And it must be stopped.”
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A well-funded push to make Minnesota a ranked choice voting state appears to have run out of steam — at least this session at the Minnesota Legislature.
On Monday, State Sen. Jim Carlson, DFL-Eagan, told his colleagues in the Senate Elections Committee that a bill introduced last month that would implement ranked choice voting for statewide and legislative races by 2026 “is much more complicated than we originally thought.”
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There is little evidence to support the claims of ranked choice voting (RCV) advocates, according to a new report from the University of Minnesota.
Professor Larry Jacobs and PhD candidate Penny Thomas with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs said they have “carefully reviewed the track record” of RCV and it “fails to support four of the advocates’ promises for improvements over today’s system.”
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The Arizona State Senate passed more legislation Tuesday aimed at strengthening Arizona’s elections, starting with House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 2033, sponsored by State Representative Austin Smith (R-Suprise).
“Thank you to the @AZSenateGOP for voting out HCR2033. A bigger thank you to all the grassroots activists who worked so hard to make this happen. Very grateful for you all,” Smith tweeted. “This constitutional referral to protect our party primaries and girding us against radical experimental election systems that disenfranchise voters such as ‘ranked choice voting.'”
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A Democrat lawmaker carrying a bill that would make Minnesota only the third state in the nation to adopt statewide ranked choice voting in its elections said he’s confident he will garner support from Republicans.
That’s despite the fact that Republicans in a House Elections Committee on Friday told Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, that his RCV bill has no support from among the 64 Republican members of the House of Representatives.
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The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) released a statement Tuesday, allowing several members to speak out against Ranked Choice Voting (RVC) in Arizona and promote two bills that would prohibit it in the state.
“RCV may not always result in the candidate with the most first-choice votes winning the election,” said AFC Member Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale). “I am aware that there are groups in Arizona advocating for RCV, but this will only lead to chaos, and we must ensure that our constituents have easy and fair access to the ballot box.”
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Despite the fact that few people attended a ranked choice voting press conference at the Minnesota Capitol on Thursday, DFL legislators and paid RCV advocates expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of passing a bill that would implement their favored system of determining representation in the legislature and for statewide office.
State Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, and State Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, have introduced a bill they’re calling the “Protect and Advance Democracy Act” that would make Minnesota a ranked choice voting state by 2026.
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A “guinea pig.” That is what Sandy, Utah Mayor Monica Zoltanski said that “ranked-choice voting” (RCV) made of her hometown. The town opted into Utah’s controversial RCV pilot program, but the experiment has not gone well. The cost-saving promised by proponents never materialized, but the real alarm bells should have sounded when the experiment produced voter confusion and voter disengagement.
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The Arizona State Senate Committee on Elections, chaired by Sen. Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), convened Monday to discuss several proposed Senate Bills (SB) to strengthen Arizona’s Elections. One of those, SB 1265, sponsored by Sen. Anthony Kern (R-Glendale), presumptively restricts the implementation of a ranked choice voting (RCV) system in Arizona.
“To me, there enough questions out there, as you guys [the committee] have probably heard for the last three or four hours, on our current elections system without muddying the waters even more with a ranked choice voting,” said Kern while speaking at the meeting.
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With Democrats taking over the top leadership positions in Arizona, progressives are boldly moving onto their next steps in the state. Save Democracy Arizona (SDA) is looking into getting a ballot initiative that would open up primary elections to everyone and possibly implement ranked choice voting. The new group is composed of Democrats and moderate Republicans who seek to stop conservative Republicans from getting elected to office.
Arizona has a semi-closed primary system, meaning Republicans and Democrats automatically receive a ballot in the primary, but independents and other political parties must request one of those. With an open primary, any voter can vote with any party ballot. Save Democracy executive board member Sarah Brown Smallhouse explained why the group wants the change. “Because so few people (request a ballot), we almost have closed primaries,” she said. In recent years, independents have outnumbered both Republicans and Democrats in much of the state.
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Americans want honest, straightforward and fair elections that they can trust. Regardless of whether candidates win or lose, voters deserve far better than the incompetence, mismanagement and multi-week delays in counting votes that we’re seeing in so many states today. So, at a time when trust in elections is at an all-time low, why are some establishment Republicans teaming up with Democrats to push a complex, confusing and painfully slow method of voting in America?
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Controversial Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) is planning to present several electoral system proposals, including ranked choice voting, to state lawmakers following the runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker (R), which handed a win to Warnock.
In an interview with the New York Times following the runoff election, Raffensperger said he would offer three proposals to Georgia lawmakers, including one to establish a “ranked-choice instant runoff” system, whose main goal would be to eliminate having voters return to the polls after the general election, and the costs associated with doing so.
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Three residents of Bloomington are suing the city over its rejection of a ballot measure looking to repeal ranked-choice voting (RCV).
The lawsuit was filed last Thursday, according to a press release from the Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC), the legal group representing the three residents. The lawsuit challenges the Bloomington City Council’s unanimous rejection of a charter amendment on the November ballot to overturn the 2020 implementation of RCV.
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A group of Bloomington residents have filed a petition with the city clerk to initiate the process of repealing ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the city.
Voters in Minnesota’s fourth-largest city voted in favor of transitioning to the ranked-choice voting system in November 2020. The measure passed by two percentage points, but turnout was reportedly above 85%.
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Federal Elections Commission (FEC) records show a tight financial contest between incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative Jared Golden and the nearest Republican challenger, former U.S. Representative Bruce Poliquin, in the race for Maine’s Second Congressional district.
As of the December 31, 2021 filing deadline, Golden has raised $2,136,842.68 for the 2022 election cycle and has $1,426,268.38 on hand. Republican challenger Poliquin has raised $1,482,065.91 and has $1,397,129.24 cash on hand in the bank. That’s a cash on hand edge for Golden of less than $30,000, a paltry sum in a highly competitive congressional race.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to weigh in on the 135,000 mistaken ballots that were counted in the New York City Democratic primary.
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The election for the next mayor of New York City is in a state of confusion after the city’s board of elections released a new tally late Tuesday in the Democratic primary, then abruptly removed the tabulations citing a “discrepancy” due to counting thousands of test ballots.
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Proponents of overhauling elections to allow voters to have a backup plan if their candidate doesn’t win went 1-1 at the state level in the 2020 election, but are looking to change how elections work in other states.
More than 30 bills on ranked-choice voting have been proposed in state legislatures across the country, according to Fair Vote, the nonprofit group that is promoting the system nationally.
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