In a bid to secure the integrity of his state’s election systems, an Idaho Republican legislator introduced a bill on Tuesday seeking to ban the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the state.
Under H0179, county election offices would be prohibited from using “ranked choice voting or instant runoff voting to conduct an election or nomination of any candidate in this state for any local government, statewide, or federal elective office.”
Under RCV, which critics often refer to as “rigged-choice voting,” voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority 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. Such a process continues until one candidate receives a majority of votes.
In remarks to the House State Affairs Committee, bill sponsor and GOP Rep. Dale Hawkins asserted the legislation will “simplify the voting process and maintain consistency in [Idaho’s] electoral process.”
“We support the prohibition of ranked-choice voting and instant run-off voting in any local, statewide, or federal election held in the state to ensure every vote is counted accurately and the candidate with the most votes is elected,” he said.
According to a local news outlet, there are no localities in Idaho that currently use ranked-choice voting in the election process.
While Maine and Alaska are the only two states to employ such a system, the results from their respective elections since implementing RCV have produced outcomes that clearly contradict
