Big Idea

• Ranked Choice Voting is a disaster for election integrity
• It is an alternative to the traditional "one person, one vote" system
• Votes are actually thrown out
• Election results may be delayed as a result of the process
• Read more...

It’s true. Everywhere Ranked-Choice Voting has been tried, it’s been an unmitigated disaster for election integrity. Pushed almost exclusively by the Progressive Left and Uniparty Establishment as an alternative to traditional “one person, one vote” system that we have used in this country since our founding Ranked-choice voting is actually an known voting scam that leads to thousands of exhausted ballots, manipulation errors, lengthy election results, and diminished voter confidence. The bottom line? Lawmakers should ban Ranked Choice Voting at all levels of government.  

Ranked Choice Voting diminishes voter confidence in our election. Through multiple rounds of ballot exhaustion, more votes are thrown out than actually counted. Maine’s 2018 Second Congressional District election, more than 8,000 ballots were thrown in the trash. Bruce Poliquin (R) received 46.33 percent of the vote ahead of Jared Golden’s (D) 45.58 percent. But since Poliquin didn’t receive 50 percent, there was a second round of tabulation. The secretary of state threw out more than 8,000 ballots and Golden was declared the winner—but with only 49.2 percent of the total ballots cast. That is called ballot exhaustion. In Alaska’s 2022 congressional special election, Republican candidates received 60 percent of the vote in the first round, but the Democrat won. Nearly 15,000 were trashed, and the Democrat won by a little more than 5,000 votes.

Delayed election results diminish voter confidence in our elections. Multiple rounds of counting leads to massive errors. Hand counting elections in Ranked Choice Voting is impossible. A black box software must be used to tally the results. This is what happened in Alameda County, California. A software error was found two months after the election was certified. After an extensive audit it was found the third place candidate had actually won. Another example of the failed experiment of Ranked-Choice Voting. New York mayoral race 2021. 140,000 ballots tossed due to ballot exhaustion, nearly 15% of the total cast votes. It took nearly a month to declare the winner.

The facts are clear. Ranked-Choice Voting should be banned at all levels of government. As the prime sponsor of HCR2033 of Arizona's 56th legislature that will appear on the general election ballot in 2024, I have worked tirelessly with other conservative lawmakers, election integrity experts and organizations to ensure we ban Ranked-Choice Voting and the Jungle Primary system in Arizona for good. By enshrining this in our Constitution through a legislative referral to the voters, we can continue moving in the right direction for free and fair elections in the state of Arizona.

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