Ranked-choice voting and open primaries are two bad ideas whose time has most assuredly not come. Both ideas were on the ballots of several states this election year, and despite proponents of both bad ideas literally pouring bushel baskets of cash into their campaigns to get these things passed, they failed – almost everywhere.
Two weeks before Election Day, activists from across the country gathered for an online rally heralding the historic number of state ballot initiatives seeking to change the way people vote. Hopes were high that voters would ditch traditional partisan primaries and embrace ballots with more candidate choices.
Instead, the election reform movement lost almost everywhere it appeared on a statewide ballot.
“It turns out, in retrospect, we weren’t yet ready for prime time,” said John Opdycke, president of the advocacy group Open Primaries, which organized the rally.
In Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and South Dakota — a mixture of red, blue and purple states — voters rejected either ranked choice voting, open primaries or a combination of both.
These are bad ideas – but why?
First, open primaries. We have political parties for a reason: to allow each side to put forth the candidates that the members of that party deem the best to represent their interests. It is counter-productive to have non-Republicans in effect telling Republicans who their candidate should be, and honestly, the converse also holds true. Democrats should not have non-Democrats influencing who the Democratic candidate should be.
Second, ranked-choice voting (RCV), which also in effect requires an open primary. The principle of one voter, one vote is violated by these systems, which are complex and, for many, confusing. In Alaska’s first outing of this system, I overheard complaining about this system – along with comments along the lines of “I’m voting my first choice and that’s it.” This year, it appears that no election outcomes were changed in the RCV tallies, but in 2022 the RCV system was largely seen as easing Mary Peltola’s way to an election victory, in part because she had two Republican challengers. That did not happen this year, and she was unseated in favor of Republican Nick Begich III.