To say 2024 was a terrible year for ranked-choice voting would be an understatement. Not only did six states ban it, but voters in six states also rejected it at the ballot box. Pro-RCV groups spent more than $100 million pushing those ballot initiatives, lavishly outspending opponents, yet they lost. Just a few months into 2025, it’s shaping up to be another devastating year for ranked-choice voting.
All this is good news for voters, since RCV makes the entire election process more complex, slower and more difficult. Instead of just voting for one candidate, in an RCV election voters are asked to rank all of the candidates. When ballots are counted, less popular candidates are eliminated. Voters who selected those candidates have their second choices counted – or, if they don’t have another choice, their ballots are eliminated. This process of counting, moving votes, throwing out ballots, and recounting goes on until a candidate has a majority of what’s left.
No wonder five more states have already banned RCV this year: Kansas, Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota, and Arkansas. Similar bills are working their way through legislatures in states like Texas, Georgia, and Ohio. A bill to ban ranked-choice voting in Iowa is on the governor’s desk awaiting her signature.
And that’s not all. Repeal movements are active in Alaska and in major cities like Oakland and San Francisco. In Maine, a bill to repeal ranked-choice voting passed the state House before dying in the Senate. Last November, a ballot measure to repeal it in Alaska came within 743 votes of passing.
All of this probably comes as a shock to well-funded “election reform” groups like FairVote and Unite America and their donors. A few years ago, they seemed to be winning. Their big spending convinced voters in Alaska, Maine, and various cities and towns to adopt RCV. Now they are spending tens of millions of dollars just to defend their convoluted election system. RCV faces fierce bipartisan opposition.
A great example is what happened in Kansas last month. The Republican majority legislature passed a ban on RCV, and Gov. Laura Kelly signed it into law. That made her the first Democratic governor to enact an RCV ban, although Democratic governors in other states have vetoed RCV legislation.
Repeal efforts in Oakland and San Francisco are led by Democrats upset with the urban decay their once-beautiful cities are experiencing due to the so-called progressive officials elected by the system. For example, the San Francisco School Board, which is elected by RCV, voted to remove Algebra 1 from middle school in a twisted attempt to create a more “equitable” system.
Oakland’s Mayor Sheng Thao was recalled only two years after her election for presiding over an increase in violent crime and having her home raided by the FBI over accusations of corruption. She became a poster child for RCV after winning in the ninth round by receiving the most second-place votes.
The Stop RCV movement is one of the most successful political coalitions in recent memory. But its success isn’t just due to those fighting against the scheme. We should thank pro-RCV groups and officials elected by the system for showing the public firsthand how confusing and unworkable it is.
