What was once a ballot measure that voters of both parties agreed upon was a good idea for the sake of American democracy and has now faced bipartisan opposition in the 2024 elections. Ranked choice voting is a system of voting in which candidates are ranked, with a ranking of one being your most preferred and four being your least preferred candidate. The movement for ranked choice voting gained its first victory in Maine in 2016.
Maine had a long history of third party candidates running for office, which culminated in the 2010 gubernatorial election in which 4 candidates received more than 5% of the vote, resulting in Paul LePage becoming governor with only 37% of the vote. This followed in 2014 when LePage won again without receiving over 50% of the vote which many Democrats argued was due to third party candidate Elliot Cutler being on the ballot and acting as a “spoiler candidate.”
The way that ranked choice voting is that If a candidate does not reach 50%, the tabulation would be moved to the second choice and so on. Activists have argued that having ranked choice voting allows third party candidates to have a chance at winning, stops extremists from taking office, and stops “spoiler” candidates. In 2016, a new ballot measure that enacted ranked choice voting passed, giving the state a new way to conduct elections. In 2020 Alaska followed suit and enacted ranked choice voting through a ballot measure as well. Because of these developments, advocates of the initiative felt that they were poised for many more states to join, especially because it had been made a ballot measure in several states in the 2024 election.
Unfortunately for democracy, voters across the board rejected such ranked choice voting ballot measures. It was rejected in red states such as Idaho and Montana, blue states such as Colorado and Oregon, and purple states such as Arizona and Nevada. In addition, these measures were rejected usually by double digit margins, with some even reaching 60% “no.” Why this occurred is, to me, a mystery given previous surveys have indicated that Americans support ranked choice voting. Even more confusing is that many are tired of the two party system and want a viable third party option which could only occur with ranked choice voting. Why Americans would reject such a measure will be studied for centuries. Americans love to complain about a two party system, yet they vote to keep it in place it; Americans claim the cost of living is too high, yet they vote against a minimum wage increase (see Massachusetts and California), and of course, Americans complain about politicians being in office too long yet vote for the same ones every time. Make no mistake, despite the buzz about Americans “hating the establishment,” they did everything in their power to further empower it. Go Establishment!
