With 2024 election results tabulated in most states, a clear pattern has emerged. That is, voters have no interest in allowing ranked-choice voting (RCV) to corrupt their elections.
In numerous states across the country, ballot initiatives seeking to implement RCV in elections were overwhelmingly defeated by electors. Under RCV, voters 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 his voters’ second-choice candidate.
This process continues until one candidate receives a majority of votes.
RCV has produced lopsided election results and races with high rates of discarded ballots. It’s often been pushed by Democrats as a way of winning traditionally Republican seats, as evidenced in Alaska and Maine.
In Nevada, early results show more than half of the state’s 2024 electors voting “no” against a constitutional amendment proposal that sought to implement a top-five RCV system. Having been approved by Silver State voters in the last general election, the initiative required passage on Tuesday to be ratified as part of the Nevada Constitution.
As a result of its failure to secure support from a majority of voters, the amendment will not be added to the state’s founding document.
In Arizona, preliminary results indicate voters have defeated Proposition 140. That constitutional amendment proposal sought to institute an open primary system in which candidates of all parties run in the same primary. It
