Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz thinks ranked-choice voting “gives us better trust in our democracy.” What he really means is that ranked-choice voting gives us better trust in Democrats’ ability to win.
The left is engaging in an all-out effort to implement ranked-choice voting in red and swing states across the country. It cannot be overstated how dangerous this is. States without ranked-choice voting must be on guard.
Ranked-choice voting is a far cry from the beacon of fairness advocates claim it to be. In practice, ranked-choice voting silences voters by throwing ballots away, strongarms voters into voting for candidates they don’t support, delays ballot counting, reduces voter confidence in elections and turns losers into winners.
Why advocate for it, then? Because it turns elections into a game that can rack up wins for the left, particularly the most radical candidates.
Under ranked-choice voting, voters must rank every candidate on the ballot in order of preference. This includes the ones the voter may find intolerable, morally reprehensible or just plain incompetent — or risk having their ballot thrown out. Yes, thrown out and not counted. If no candidate wins a majority after one round of ranked-choice voting tabulation, it goes into further rounds of tabulation — with ballots repeatedly “exhausted” (a nice way of saying discarded) — until a candidate receives more than 50% of the remaining votes.
Two of the most noteworthy users of ranked-choice voting, Maine and Alaska, show how this undemocratic ploy works in action. In Alaska’s special election to fill the late Rep. Don Young’s seat, a majority of voters only ranked the two Republican candidates because they didn’t want to vote for the Democrat. As a result, during tabulation, 15,000 ballots were trashed, and the Democratic candidate, Mary Peltola, won despite 60% of voters preferring Republicans.
In a 2018 congressional race in Maine, Rep. Jared Golden, the Democratic candidate, came in second to the incumbent, Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin, after the initial vote tabulation. However, because Poliquin didn’t win 50% or more and voters didn’t rank every candidate or didn’t include the final candidates in their top two, Golden won after several rounds of tabulation and after more than 8,000 ballots were thrown in the garbage.
In Walz’s home state of Minnesota, ranked-choice voting gave Minneapolis a radical mayor.
That’s three Democrats who owe their high-profile offices to ranked-choice voting and trashed ballots. No wonder those on the left like Walz want to see it implemented nationwide.
Once ranked-choice voting is implemented, it’s difficult to get rid of. But that doesn’t mean states aren’t trying: Alaska is trying to end ranked-choice voting in their statewide elections and many municipalities have already repealed it or are planning to.
Now, states like Missouri have to be on high alert and block ranked-choice voting before it has a chance to gain a foothold. Red states and swing states are prime ranked-choice voting targets because, as we’ve seen, ranked-choice voting is the preferred tool of the left for putting radical candidates into office. In November, Missouri voters can stop the threat by voting to ban the practice.
There is a saying: “It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.”
Ranked-choice voting is one of those mistakes.
Alaska, Maine, and other areas running with this election scheme are an important lesson to voters in Missouri and across the country. Ranked-choice voting threatens our democratic system and the voices of Americans from all walks of life. If we truly care about the will of the people and want to place our trust in democracy, states cannot listen to Walz and support a voting system that throws ballots in the trash. It’s time for states to close the door on ranked-choice voting for good.
Madeline Malisa is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, where she is a policy and legal expert on election and initiative integrity.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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