Key Takeaways:
- Ranked choice voting disenfranchises voters by forcing them to rank candidates, and discarding those voters’ ballots if they fail to use the ranking system or if their ballots contain mistakes, which are common. One comprehensive study shows more than one-in-ten ballots are discarded in this fashion.
- Disenfranchisement disproportionately affects minority communities.
- RCV causes substantial voter confusion, lower voter turnout, and a decrease in public confidence in the election system.
- RCV results in significant administrative errors by election officials, which can lead to delays in processing election results, and can cause a losing candidate to be mistakenly certified as the winner.
- RCV can cause candidates who do not receive the most votes to win the election, subverting the will of the people.
- RCV manipulates third-party voters into supporting mainstream candidates and further entrenches the power of the two dominant political parties.
- RCV poses an immense threat to election integrity and fair democratic processes.
- Policymakers should ban ranked choice voting in every jurisdiction.
Jack McPherrin
Jack McPherrin is The Heartland Institute’s research editor, as well as a research fellow within Heartland’s Socialism Research Center.
