West Virginia and Wyoming are the latest two states to ban ranked-choice voting (RCV), bringing the total number of states prohibiting the election system to 13. The battle over whether to implement or ban RCV has been ongoing for nearly a decade. However, more states have banned RCV or chosen not to use it than have implemented it.
RCV is an election process whereby if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, then a runoff system is triggered. When voters cast their ballots, they rank each candidate in order of first-to-last.
If no candidate reaches the 50% plus-one vote threshold, then the candidate with the least amount of first-choice votes is eliminated, then second-choice votes from those who voted for the last-place finisher are reallocated among the remaining candidates and tallied – in a process that continues until a candidate receives the majority of the vote.
The pros and cons
RCV proponents argue that the system results in representative outcomes and majority rule, incentivizes positive campaigning, allows for more voter choice, and saves money when replacing preliminaries or runoffs, according to pro-RCV organization FairVote.
At the same time, election integrity advocates have warned of the increased use of more dark money in RCV elections, and NAACP chapters have raised issues about RCV potentially confusing voters. Alaska and Maine are the only two states that use RCV in elections statewide, and three counties and 46 cities use RCV, according to FairVote. Maine was the first state to implement RCV statewide in 2018.