The Case Against Ranked-Choice Voting

It was Friday, and the day before Christmas Eve. It was also forty-five days after the 2022 midterm election. At the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, California, the Registrar of Voters staff had weeks ago certified the election results

Yet at some point that day, the office received startling news. According to an outside analysis, they had made a serious mistake. Actually, they had made a series of mistakes, throwing off the final vote totals in a myriad of races. And in one fiercely contested school board election, the Registrar had certified the wrong winner

All this happened because of a novel election process known as ranked-choice voting, or RCV (sometimes called instant runoff voting or, in Canada, alternative voting). Used statewide in Alaska and Maine, and in some local elections in states like California, Utah, and Vermont, RCV is backed by a powerful national lobbying effort. It is part of an agenda that makes elections more complex and chaotic, and consequently less transparent and trustworthy.