In the District of Columbia, voters overwhelmingly supported a ballot measure to establish ranked choice voting for elections beginning in 2026 and to open the primary process to voters who are not affiliated with a party.
Ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank political candidates by preference, is used statewide in Alaska and Maine and in major U.S. localities such as New York City and San Francisco.
Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, introduced legislation that would have prohibited the district from using ranked choice voting in local elections.
Voters in several states last week delivered a stinging rebuke to ranked choice voting, clouding the future of an idea that had seen strong momentum in recent years.
“I’m still really optimistic for how it will continue to grow.” And though it lost in Oregon, she pointed out that the measure had majority support in jurisdictions that currently use ranked choice voting, such as Multnomah (home to Portland) and Benton counties.
But voters in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon rejected ballot measures that would have adopted ranked choice voting for packed races.
The local political party leadership campaigned against the measure, as was the case in other places where ranked choice voting was on the ballot.
In 2024, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma enacted measures that banned the use of ranked choice voting — a burgeoning trend in Republican-led states, reacting to key GOP losses in Alaska and Maine in recent years.
Otis said her group is moving ahead with campaigns to bring ranked choice voting to local elections in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Boston and Denver in the coming years.
He’s previously pointed to delayed results in New York City’s elections using ranked choice voting and what he said was the confusion that came with it.
“Overall, we see that ranked choice voting is still growing,” said Deb Otis, director of research and policy at FairVote, the nonpartisan organization leading the fight to adopt ranked choice voting.
Critics often blast ranked choice voting as being complicated and undemocratic, saying it violates the “one person, one vote” principle of American elections.
Leaders in several Virginia localities said in the past week that they’re considering using ranked choice voting in the near future after Arlington County successfully implemented the method.
“Folks were looking to city leadership and the state of politics in D.C. and wanting voters to have more choice and to be more involved in the process.” The city council must still implement the voting system.
Results are still too close to call on a measure to scrap Alaska’s existing use of ranked choice voting.
Even so, Youngkin vetoed ranked choice voting legislation in April.
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