A coalition of election integrity organizations and grassroots activists is warning Wisconsin’s Republican state legislative leadership about pending legislation that would mandate ranked-choice voting (RCV) be used for the state’s congressional elections.
Under RCV, often dubbed “rigged-choice voting” by its critics, voters rank candidates 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.
In a letter addressed to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, the groups emphasize how AB 563 and SB 528‘s aim to institute a top-five RCV system for congressional primaries and general elections would produce “confusing, complex, and costly” electoral contests and mark a “devastating” blow to “the integrity of Wisconsin elections.” The bills were formally introduced in the Assembly and Senate, respectively, last month.
“Both ‘final five’ ‘jungle’ primaries and disastrous RCV (also known as ‘Instant-Runoff Voting’ and ‘preferential’ voting) are schemes that have made voting more difficult, reduced transparency, and put confidence and certainty at risk when implemented in public elections,” the organizations wrote. “The result is an epidemic of disenfranchised voters whose ballots no longer are counted fairly and equally.”
Among others, the letter’s signatories include the heads of the Election Transparency Initiative, Honest Elections Project, Save Our States, and Voter Reference Foundation.
The groups’ communique further highlights how RCV disenfranchises voters, specifically as it relates to “ballot exhaustion.” The term “ballot
