Voters in several Western states had ranked-choice ballot initiatives to consider this election — and they did not fare well. There are many political differences between Nevada, Oregon, Colorado and Idaho, but their voters had a common answer when asked if they’d like to adopt such a system: No.
“Ranked-choice voting didn’t have a good day last week,” said Michael Alvarez, a professor of political and computational social science at CalTech who studies voting systems.
The nearly 40-point spread in Idaho was the most dramatic rejection, but they were all convincing losses. Alaskans also appear to be on track to repeal their ranked choice system, which voters approved just four years ago. As the name suggests, such systems allow voters to select multiple candidates on their ballots and rank them by order of preference.
“You need a scandal, you need corruption, you need something that's happening statewide to make the case to pass something complicated like this,” Alvarez said. “I'm not super deeply immersed in the politics of these various states, but I don't see that common ‘why’ there.”
Despite the losses, Alvarez said the idea likely isn’t going anywhere.
“Proponents of ranked-choice voting were ambitious in this cycle,” he said. “But I think that they'll double down, in particular in their efforts at the more local levels … in a county or in a city or municipality where there may be types of political corruption crises, clear reasons to implement a more complicated system like this.”
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
