Proponents of ranked-choice voting are recalibrating after Americans across the country broadly rejected measures intended to implement the system.
It wasn’t all bad news for advocates of the voting method: A measure aimed at repealing the system looks on track to fail in Alaska, where it was approved just four years ago. And in Washington, D.C., voters approved ranked-choice voting.
But overall, election reform measures that would have set up ranked-choice systems or done away with partisan primaries — or, in some cases, both — had a bad night in November. Such measures failed in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and South Dakota on Election Day, prompting organizers to look for new routes to grow their movement, such as educational efforts and action through the state legislature.
“We see a lot of opportunities still ahead,” said Deb Otis, director of research and policy at FairVote, a nonpartisan group backing ranked-choice voting. “We know that the path to reform isn't always a straight line. And the movement is still on a growth streak, but we're going to sometimes hit roadblocks.”
“In retrospect, this was always going to be a tough year for these kinds of ballot measures,” Otis added. “I think in a crowded presidential year that sucked up a lot of the oxygen, voters may have defaulted 'no’ to these new concepts in democracy reform.”
Nick Troiano, executive director of the election reform nonprofit Unite America, which has championed open primary efforts, also chalked up the losses to the unique “rejection election” at the presidential level this cycle — as well as to spending from opponents of the measures “to plant all sorts of doubts in voters’ minds.”
Ranked-choice systems are currently in place statewide in just two states: Alaska and Maine. Ranked-choice voting and open primary efforts accounted for six percent of ballot measures this cycle, and 8 percent of ballot measure contributions, according to an analysis from Ballotpedia just ahead of Election Day. In Colorado, detractors spent nearly half a million dollars opposing the state’s proposal for a top-four open primary and ranked-choice general election voting — though that sum was notably dwarfed by $14.6 million spent in favor. The Colorado Sun puts that figure closer to $19........