Even Leftists Understand Ranked-Choice Voting Is Unfair, So Why Are Squishy Republicans Pushing It? Conservatives Rally Against Ranked Choice Voting in Louisiana

Even Leftists Understand Ranked-Choice Voting Is Unfair, So Why Are Squishy Republicans Pushing It?

Ranked-choice voting leads to discarded ballots, voter confusion and uncertainty, and reduced confidence in elections, critics say.

he well-heeled proponents of ranked-choice voting like to sell the alternative voting system as a way to take polarization out of elections. In leftist language, RCV “makes our democracy more equitable.”

But even some of the nation’s left-leaning groups and institutions have warned about the dangers of RCV, also known as “instant-runoff voting.” Interestingly, they see the privileged preference system as a road to “voter suppression.”

“I would suggest to anybody who thinks that ranked-choice voting will stop partisanship or bet a better system, look at what some of the left-wing organizations say about RCV … They all pan it for what it is, which is a chaotic and confusing system,” Mike Vallante told me this week on the Vicki McKenna Show. Vallante is the director of the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute.

A white paper published in April 2023 by academics at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota — certainly no bastion of conservative thought — asks an important question: “Where’s the evidence supporting Ranked Choice Voting Claims?” Among its findings, the report said that there is “little research to support the proposition that RCV decreased polarization.”

“A particularly sophisticated analysis found that RCV actually increased animosity among Democrats and Republicans compared to our current system,” the paper stated.

RCV is ‘Not Right for Democracy’ —>READ MORE HERE

Conservatives rally against ranked choice voting in Louisiana

Democrats offer no opposition

A proposal to prohibit ranked choice voting is gaining traction in Louisiana. The far right has actively opposed the election option, although Republicans actually benefited from it in other states.

The voting method allows voters to list candidates in order of preference rather than select just one. It has grown increasingly popular across the country for its ability to temper extreme partisanship and give moderates and third-party candidates a better chance in elections.

During Wednesday’s Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, presented Senate Bill 101, which would prohibit any use of ranked choice voting in Louisiana. Miguez called it a complex, confusing system that has resulted in thousands of “trashed ballots” in elections in Alaska and Maine, the only two states that currently use rank choice for statewide and federal elections.

Democrats on the committee allowed Miguez’s claims to go unchecked and his bill to pass without objection. No one questioned where his data came from or probed his claims of “trashed ballots.”

What little discussion took place included an admission from Sen. Gary Carter, D-New Orleans, who said he had never before heard of ranked choice voting. The apparent lack of interest from other members continued even after it was revealed that Louisiana has long used ranked choice voting for its military overseas ballots.

Secretary of State Nancy Landry, a Republican, revealed that detail while speaking in support of the bill, but she said the service members overseas have always disliked the process. Ranked choice voting has been necessary for their ballots only because of the short time between most primary and runoff elections, according to Landry. —>READ MORE HERE

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