On Wednesday, the Arizona Supreme Court struck down an attempt by supporters of a ballot initiative that would end partisan primaries to rewrite the measure ahead of the 2024 election. Approval of the proposal this November could lead to the adoption of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in Arizona.
Siding with state lawmakers, Arizona’s highest court ruled that the description used by the legislative panel responsible for writing ballot initiative summaries “accurately describes the Initiative” and “substantially complies” with state law. The ruling overturns a prior decision from a Maricopa County Superior Court judge, who according to the States Newsroom-affiliated Arizona Mirror, claimed the language used by the Legislative Council “was intentionally misleading.”
If passed by voters, Proposition 140 would amend the Arizona Constitution by instituting an open primary system in which candidates of all parties run in the same primary. The state legislature would be tasked with determining how many candidates advance to the general election, which would use ranked-choice voting to determine the winner in races with three or more candidates. Should the legislature fail to decide how many candidates run in general elections by Nov. 1, 2025, the decision would fall upon the secretary of state.
Under an RCV system, voters are asked to rank candidates of all parties in order of preference. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes in the first round of voting, the last-place finisher is eliminated, and his votes are reallocated to the voter’s second-choice candidate. This process continues
