Ranked-Choice Voting Is Gaining Momentum. So Are Efforts to Stop It.

This article in The 19th by Barbara Rodriguez features RepresentWomen's 2023 ranked choice voting memo. Read an excerpt below.

Supporters of ranked-choice voting say it helps reduce some of the toxicity of American politics, in part because candidates are incentivized to campaign to be a voter’s second-choice pick. Because candidates work to appeal to their opponents’ supporters, the system may encourage less negative campaigning. It could also reduce the number of candidates with unpopular or extreme policy platforms from running — in part because they may be unable to win a majority of votes.

“That’s why we believe it holds such a promise for American democracy,” said Jeanne Massey, executive director of FairVote Minnesota. “You can no longer win in these high stakes elections with a plurality of 30, 40 percent of the vote and call it a day and govern to that base and ignore the rest of the voters.”

Supporters also believe it encourages more women and people of color to run for office. That’s because ranked-choice voting — also known as RCV — encourages multiple people to run for a seat. Under the current single-winner plurality election system, women candidates or candidates of color may be discouraged from running out of fear that they will split the vote among like-minded voters.

Read the complete article published by The 19th.