You Should Know @lemmy.world throwawayacc0430 @sh.itjust.works 4d ago

YSK that in 16 States in the USA has banned Ranked-Choice voting, including 5 that has just banned it in 2025, and 6 of those bans happened in 2024.

ballotpedia.org Ranked-choice voting (RCV)

Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

RCV trends: Four states ban RCV in 2025, bringing the number of states with bans to 15.

(Okay idk why it says 15 up here then later says 16, somebody on that site probably didn't update the title text)

As of April 30, five states had banned RCV in 2025, which brought the total number of states that prohibit RCV to 16.

Gov. Mark Gordon (Republican) signed HB 165 on March 18.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (Republican) signed SB 490 the March 19.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (Democrat) signed SB 6 into law on April 1.

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong (Republican) signed HB 1297 on April 15.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Republican) signed HB 1706 which became law on April 17.

Six states banned RCV in 2024.

Why YSK: If you're a US-American, its time to pay attention to State and Local politics instead of solely on the Federal. There is a trend in conservative jurisdictions to stop progress in making elecoral systems more fair. Use this opportunity as a rallying-cry to pass Ranked-Choice Voting in progressive jurisdictions, and hopefully everyone else takes notes. Sometimes, all you need is a few states adopting a law to become the catalyst for it to become the model for the entire country, for better or for worse. Don't allow anti-RCV legislations to dominate, counter the propaganda with pro-RCV arguments. Time to turn the tide.

Edit: fixed formatting

Edit 2: Added in the map so you don't have to click the link:

See the pattern? 🤔

162

Politics @scribe.disroot.org NSRXN @scribe.disroot.org 3d ago

YSK that in 16 States in the USA has banned Ranked-Choice voting, including 5 that has just banned it in 2025, and 6 of those bans happened in 2024.

ballotpedia.org /Ranked-choice_voting_(RCV)

162 comments

🇦🇺 heh, amateurs... But seriously this is ridiculous, and straight up anti-democtatic. Single member first past the post is the worst voting system out there.

Inb4 they make mulit-member electorates winner-take-all (all seats to the party who got the plurality of votes).

This is THE fight USA. In my opinion, your ridiculous voting systems is probably why it's so easy to suppress you.
First past the post voting is the sole issue that is keeping legitimately contending third parties off of our ballots.

Installing ranked choice voting (or one of its very close cousins) is the the number one reformation change that can be made to give the people their voices back. So of course, the powers that be are terrified of it... no surprises here.
Anything but real democracy.
There was a STRONG effort to ban (or at least end) RCV here in Alaska, and it failed, but barely. They even did the super misleading wording, too, in order to make it unclear if the measure banned RCV or supported it.

I was always so confused by the adamant support that was being shown by general people, though. Like, I get why both Dems and Republicans would be against it: they want to be the only two players in the game. But why any general people would want less choice is beyond me. And it's funny, because the staunchest proponents (at least where I am) were conservatives, when (again, where I live) RCV basically drove out the Democrats. There were Progressives, there were "centrists," there were Libertarians, and then there was Republican/MAGA. Dems didn't even get enough support to be on the ballot. So their hated Libs were wiped off the board entirely for being so ill-liked, but they want to get rid of that system? I just don't get it.
Nothing screams "democracy" like explicitely banning a voting system
Don’t worry. Voting altogether will be next.
This is democrats and Republicans not wanting people to vote for their candidate of choice because they have to constantly play the game of the lesser of two evils. They wanna keep power
Love how it's the cousin fucking states and the flyover Midwest.
Ranked choice should be the standard

Tl;dr

I was curious so I had to go look and see what states banned it. I was shocked, shocked I tell you to see the states that banned it are:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming

Edit to add:

We voted for it at the county level here in CA. That was back in 2020. San Diego county voted to use RCV, as did several other counties in CA. The county registrar of voters is refusing to change from FPTP, and is waiting to see how the lawsuits turn out.

Even if your state hasn't banned it, they will fight you tooth and nail not to change it.
What is a ban going to do.

It just changes the language of the acceptance bill
At what point is a democracy not a democracy any more?
Is anybody surprised that you could replace the orange with red and have a pretty accurate election map?

What are you guys scared of? Democracy?
In MO. Voted on it last year. The ballot was intentionally worded to be misleading.

It said each person can only cast one vote. Making it sound like it was to prevent people from voting twice even though that person as already not allowed.

So dumb.
Americans complain about the two party system and do absolutely nothing to change that. It's like watching a soap opera but everyone's fell of the horse and lost their memory.
Ohio is trying to ban it this year.
Mainer here. Its great, except that the governor's race is specifically exempted from RCV. May have something to do with GOP former governor LePage, but can't recall before my morning meds...
Seems about right. This reinforces my reality. If something good happened to humanity, I might wonder if I somehow might be going mad.
Golly what a surprise! Duopoly gonna duopoly!

Remember that you still have power in this system by not voting for a party if they do not fulfill your demands.
Can anyone explain to me why a BAN was even needed? If a State is FPTP that’s the way it is; why do they need to say a different way is not allowed? Especially because of that different way were to actually be viable enough to become law it would just be a one two step - repeal the old, then institute the new.
absolutely shocked that southern states with the worst education and track history of the most oppressive laws would do this to their constituents

they've been nothing but whored-out welfare states the whole fucking time
The whole entry is enlightening.
We have rcv here for local elections in nyc but not for any state or federal elections
Approval and STAR are better anyway. Not that they wouldn't find a piss poor excuse to ban those as well.
Meh. There are better voting systems such as range voting and STAR.
Sarah huckabee did something awful??? Shocked I say
Really bugs me how americans talk about "ranked choice voting" because you guys seem to mean STV, which is a form of proportional representation with multi-member districts.

But in Canada, "ranked ballots" meant IRV, which was basically FPTP with a ranked ballot, and ironically exacerbated the worst parts of FPTP like the trend to a two party system.

Stick with the real names of electoral systems!
It occurs to me that the electoral system might be used in Pres elections to work (very slightly) in that direction. What if a number of associated candidates made a pact that their electors, if elected, would vote for whichever of the pact makers got the most popular votes overall? Like if Sanders and Biden and Harris were in a pact like that of Democrats (named chosen of unlikely future candidates). People could vote for whichever, avoiding split-the-vote tactics. If Sanders won a state, but Harris got more pop votes nationwide, his electors would instead vote for her. Complicated maybe, but it wouldn't need any constitutional changes, and might make disasters like a Trump win less likely. Dumb idea?
I hate it here in the South.

162 comments