AMAC Exclusive – By Aaron Flanigan
While practices like ballot harvesting continue to pose a serious threat to election integrity in the United States, another pernicious scheme to undermine the democratic will of the voters – and specifically dash the electoral prospects of Republican candidates – is the spread of ranked-choice voting (RCV).
According to FairVote, one of the main groups pushing Ranked Choice Voting, the practice “makes our elections better by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference.” Ballots that “do not help voters’ top choices win,” the group states, “count for their next choice”—resulting in a process that RCV proponents say yields “better choices, better campaigns, and better representation.”
Though RCV remains a relatively new innovation within the national American political landscape, it is quickly gaining traction—most noticeably among Democrats, progressive activists, and self-proclaimed political centrists.
Currently, only two states—Alaska and Maine—use RCV in statewide elections. However, as of last January, lawmakers in 14 states had introduced 27 bills proposing RCV models, a sign of the system’s increasing momentum nationwide. “Ranked-choice voting is having a moment. The past year saw not only an expansion in the use of ranked-choice systems but also increased interest in instituting it more widely,” NBC News reported early this year.
But the fact that RCV has become so popular among left-wing political operatives should leave center-right Americans skeptical about the stated motivations behind the RCV push. A look at the results in states that have adopted RCV quickly reveals that the practice has been a huge boon for Democrats, particularly in solid red states.
During last fall’s midterm election season, for instance, Ranked Choice Voting was widely credited with the losses of conservative candidates like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who came up short against Democrat Mary Peltola in a U.S. House special election, despite Alaska’s enduring status as a solid red state.
“Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said after Peltola was declared the winner. “60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat ‘won.’”
The institution of RCV likely also played a role in the 2022 victory of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski—derided by conservative voters and GOP activists as a “RINO” who has betrayed the interests of her state and her party—over Trump-endorsed challenger Kelly Tshibaka.
But opposition to RCV encompasses much more than the risk of Republican losses. As Senator Cotton observed, RCV disenfranchises voters by way of imposing an overly elaborate voting process that makes it far more difficult for the candidate with a simple majority of votes to win.
As Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow and election law expert at the Heritage Foundation, noted, Ranked Choice Voting is really nothing more than “a scheme to disconnect elections from issues and allow candidates with marginal support from voters to win elections.” He continued: “In the end, it is all about political power, not about what is best for the American people and for preserving our great republic. So-called [RCV] reformers want to change process rules so they can manipulate election outcomes to obtain power.”
As von Spakovsky further noted in a January 2023 report, the RCV tabulation process is highly prone to errors and complications. In a 2022 California school board election, for instance, county officials admitted two months after the race was called that they had incorrectly tabulated the votes and thus declared the wrong winner.
In the 2021 New York mayoral race, the Heritage report found, “it took eight rounds of vote counting of the 10 candidates during two weeks’ time before a final winner was announced”—and more than 140,000 ballots had been thrown out because they were filled out improperly.
In Alaska last year, a full three rounds of voting took place before the winner was ultimately declared—and even then, more than 15,000 ballots were thrown out.
By and large, conservatives have failed to acknowledge the dangers posed by RCV not only to the political fortunes of Republican candidates, but also to the clarity of voting procedures, the simplicity of ballot instructions, and above all the integrity of democratic process.
For the past several years, the Democrat Party has been engaged in a ruthless campaign to paint the GOP as an existential threat to democracy. But by turning their attention to the perils of RCV, Republican officials can not only flip the script and combat the left’s false narrative, but also save American democracy and preserve the sanctity of the ballot box.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
Ranked Choice Voting seems to favor Democratic Party candidates so you know that the Blue States will push to feature it!
Just another scheme to cheat Republicans!
Hopefully the American people show more pushback to RCV and stop it from wide-spread adoption than they did to mass mail-in ballots. As you’ve all seen already, once a change is rammed through in the voting process, it is almost completely impossible to repeal it.
The sole major purpose of RCV is to empower fringe leftist candidates, all affiliated in one way or another with the Democrat (Socialist) Party and all of which would be unelectable by conventional voting standards, to potentially gain political power by churning the voting process until they end up ultimately winning. Ask the people of Alaska or the UK or a few of the European countries that have embraced it what they think of RCV and the results they delivered.
If only dems were so inventive and capable of ideas when it comes to leading the economy and the country in the right direction to prosperity as they are of scheming and cheating
RCV is another way to play fraud on the American voter and makes no sense. Most people can’t understand how RCV works. Nobody can explain what benefits it has. Since the left wingers are for it be very aware it is beneficial for them but nobody else. Leave the voting system like it has always been. Vote at the polling places, no early voting. Absentee ballots criteria to be established and deadlines to be given. Every voter has to show ID and Soc Sec number. No voting machines to count the ballots. Police or FBI agents in the room when the ballots are counted, to observe any irregularities going on like hidden boxes of ballots under the tables. If everyone has to appear in person it is harder to commit fraud with dead people voting or people from one state voting in another state. lets take away fraud but RCV is not the solution. What it will do people staying home for it does not mean anything, they think, to go and vote. I think that is what they are shooting for, no voters, especially those reps, they want them to stay home. If in 2024 the rep candidate for president should win by a large margin larger than ole Joe did in 2020 with this system we all know there was fraud done in 2020 that is why they want to bring in RCV. Majority votes makes you a winner. Close vote have a runoff. But not have the people in a back room somewhere work the percentages in such a way that a democrat wins because that is what is going to happen with RCV. That is why the dems are pushing it
This is the stupidest voting system ever devised by man, this voting system is designed to do one thing, it is designed to elect Democrats, or as I call the DEMONRATS, this system should be ruled unconstitutional because it disenfranchises Republican voters most imprtantly Conservative voters.
While a lot of voters will vote for a good candidate for the first choice, Democrats will cross over and vote for the worst republican as their second choice as in the case of Sen. Lisa Murkowski from Alaska.
It is a guaranteed win for the left every time, what amazes me is that the people in Alaska were STUPID enough to fall for this garbage system, I can understand Maine, they haven’t elected a person who believes in the Constitution in my lifetime.
God Bless America in the brief time it has left as a free Nation!
Let’s just stick with the basics and run clean, non partisan elections. We must insist on a National Photo ID and proof of citizenship to be eligible to vote. Before anyone can receive a mail in ballot they must be verified as a legal American citizen. Registration for voting must be done one month before election day. No vote harvesting done at Nursing Homes, Senior Centers or Assisted Living facilities. Enough is enough with messing around with our elections. It’s obvious that this RCV seems to benefit Democrats and therefore should not be acceptable.
take this upcoming ’24 elections, outside of trump i don’t trust any of them, and would refuse to put one of their names as 2nd. i will never again support the lesser of 2 evils!!!
As long as you have RINOs like McConnell and his gang of go along to get alongs, RCV will gain a foothold similar to the voting early and ballot harvesting issues. Mumbling Mitch needs to step down from his leadership postition and allow someone with a backbone to take charge
THIS PROBLEM (AMONG MANY) Is actually a SPIRITUAL BATTLE!!! … Prayer Warriors and Intercessors and ALL Believers in the Body of Messiah… MUST STAND… DECLARE… DECREE … AND PROCLAIM the WORD of the MOST HIGH – AGAINST THIS and EVERY OTHER encroachment on ALL AREAS our FREEDOMS AND CONSTITUTION RIGHTS!! ????????????
This RCV system just complicates the voting process and increases the amount of errors along with the complications. This will be worse than the “hanging chad” debacle.
I’m suspicious of anything pushed by left wing liberals. They do not have the best interests of voters in mind.
Somebody is full of it. If I lived in such a state, I’d be filing suits. And some would be against individual proponents of the asinine idea.
I live in Alaska and object strenuously to ranked choice voting. I can’t believe it passed. It is a slight of hand trick, moving votes around to create a fog and illusion that somehow my vote counts for at least my second choice. I hope we can go back to one vote. When artificial intelligence is used there will be an ever increasing temptation to rig the vote. Now the accounting problem is that if no candidate receives more than half the vote, manipulation starts. Because we start with more than 2 candidates, it is difficult to impossible to get over half. The manipulators start arranging the outcome. We need primaries to sort out the stronger candidate. Or if no primary, the candidate with the greatest number of votes wins. More than 50% is not important compared to protecting the honesty of the election.
If a Democrat suggests it, IT’S CHEATING! They shot down voter ID (again & again) in Nevada despite the fact they ASK YOU the same information as a DL when you vote in person plus verify your signature on file. Who, except CHEATERS, do not want to see an ID?
Agreed. RCV is a dangerous ploy to silence Conservative candidates. Most voters are confused by the process and more information needs to be put out to the public to simply define the dangers of this kind of voting. Educating the public is the key to stopping this push to change our system of voting. Education and get out the vote urgently needed!!!
This is nothing but another type of sneaky attempt to grab power by Democrats and rabid liberals. Am dismayed that two states have obviously allowed themselves to be manipulated and taken in as suckers. Maine and Alaska need to relieve themselves of this RCV boondoggle ASAP. Other states must shun it, for RCV favors only the power-seeking few — and ensures the abominable re-arrangement of voting outcomes.
BUT the RNC DC Estd Block actions.
NO ranked choice votes rigged for Dems to win
There will come a day when RCV will no longer benefit Dems. Wait and see how quickly they try to get it overturned. The one prevailing thing about Dems is they live for the moment. Every single one of their policies is proof of that. They create policies which in the short run benefit them or one of their supporting demographics, but we now can see for ourselves how self-destructive that has become for them. They think they can be all things to all people all the time but at some point they have to pick and choose. It never serves them well..
Elections are of THE PEOPLE. Not the government or political activist organizations. We can become ballot boxes and poll observers. And bring your cell phones.
Which Democratic came 1st pushed Raked Choice Voting? Please stop this voting madness already! I am 75 years old and I really do miss the old days.
Why can’t we just do back to the way we voted for years……one day voting and we were done…..you had the list of candidates, put the names in, pulled the lever and Bam! you voted! or you did a paper ballot, but voting was over in just one day and by late evening you had a pretty good idea who had won…..there was not the voter fraud there is today, plus the candidate was out there for all to see, not hidden like Fetterman was, then it was too late he was in and absolutely in no shape to be in office….he’s cost us much more than he’s worth as a Senator, all they wanted was someone they could tell: say yes or say no. This is definitely NOT the country it once was…and I like so many others…want it back!!!
Thank you for this article. It is helpful and good advice given is noted.
I surely hope Alaska voters pull their heads out of this snow and ice and get rid of that pathetic system. To make matters worse, the two leading Republicans in the house race told their voters not to vote the other Republican as their second choice. Thereby trying to put pressure on everybody to just vote for one so the Democrat didn’t win. Well. Guess what? Those self-centered egotistical narcissists cost Alaska the election at least from a conservative standpoint. I’m sorry but Sarah Palin and that other guy were idiots.
We have this set up here in Washington state it has yet to result in any of the terrible situations in the article. That said it does suck in many ways and want it changed.
“Ranked Choice Voting” is nothing but a Uni-party override to the choice of the people. It gives them officially the less obvious opportunity to do what we have now witnessed multiple times with fraud via machines, hacking, mail in ballots, stop-start counting, ballot scanning, early voting, multiple day counts, illegals voting, and ballot harvesting, which is to crown the loser the winner. Ranked choice voting ought to be illegal just as all the other above mentioned methods of fraud cheating the people out of the value of their vote by altering the count, or nullification, and punishable with a prison sentence of no less than 25 years without bail, and parole.
I actually think RCV could work, if modified from lessons learned from Alaska et al.I’d defer to experts to modify, but I’m thinking something like forcing a runoff if all the #1 choices came out less than 50% (which is the usual anyway), but the runoff would always include the top #1 choice, plus either the runner up #1 choice, or the #2 choice IF (and only if) eligible. Eligible MIGHT be if that candidate garnered more than 50% of top votes (#1 and #2), or something like that. Anyone have ideas on what would make it fair? If so, share with the rest of us; and those who live in one of those states considering RCV should let their legislators know how the bill needs to improve! Remember, it could benefit Republicans next time. We just want it to be FAIR.
Start recall campaigns against all of the Democrats and RINOs in your area. Dig out the roots and the weeds will whither.
There was also good article in Newsmax about 3 – 4months back. Yes, once they get a lefty or Rhino in there it is really hard to get them out.
Alaskans were cheated in last fall’s U.S. Senate election when Kelly Tshibaka lost to incumbent RINO Senator Lisa Murkowski in a RCV contest. GOP candidate Tshibaka was the Republican Party nominee, chosen by primary election voters in that very red state. The Democrats’ senate nominee was certain to receive only a small number of votes that November.
Senator Murkowski had been censured by Alaska’s Republican Party officials after she voted to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. RINO Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, came to Murkowski’s aid, contributing $5.8 million in GOP donors’ contributions to her independent reelection campaign.
If Mitch McConnell had instead used that $5.8 million to help other GOP senate candidates in close races, Republicans might have regained majority status in BOTH the House and Senate. McConnell’s actions were reprehensible. True conservative Kelly Tshibaka would be Alaska’s junior senator today if that state hadn’t adopted the RCV election process.
No RCV
Living in Maine, CRV is such a farce. If a candidate gets 49% of the vote and the other two split the remaining 51%, those who voted for one of those two, imo, should not get to actually vote for the other one as well.
Ranked Choice Voting – wow!! Did a Democrat come up with this ridiculous idea?? If we can’t even have fair elections now, wait until there are multiple choices on a ballot and see how much more messed up elections can be!!! Is this another way that Democrats have found to cheat on elections??
The only folks hoping for this voting procedure to work are the thieving Dumbassocrats. Making voting more and more difficult only plays into their hands. LET’S GO BRANDON again.
Yes, exactly. Another SCHEME. Never imagined mor intended for our Constitutional Republic.
TROLL of many names ALERT !
Can Alaskans read? Could they suffering from Brain Freeze?
If the demon rats are for it you can take it to the bank that it is a way for them to cheat.
That’s why we need TRUMP in 2024!
he will reform all this crap!
It seems that some of this Ranked Choice Voting is getting on the ballot via initiative petitions. There are two of these petitions for Open Primaries and Ranked Choice Voting getting ready to hit the streets in Arizona. We are aggressively organizing “Decline to Sign” campaigns, and I suggest everyone else who is facing this abomination do the same!
Dimocraps found yet another way for Election Fraud! Don’t fall for it, it was tried and not surprisingly it was a ruse that favored Dimocraps, much to the consternation of the voters. Anything Dimocraps want to change, you know it will be for the worse!
The marxist democrat party is a cancer to American Legal Citizens and Freedom.
A Great article that represents yet again, how greedy the democrats are for power.
That should frighten every American and hopefully motivate them to rid Our government of these anti American traitors!
If their not working for Citizens interest, they must go!
Ranked top voting is a waste of time and too expensive and just prolongs the process.
I hate democrats. I sure wish republicans were not wimps.
First I heard of this ballot box scam by the Left! Voters in the other 48 states beware
Why not just vote for the SAME candidate on ALL the choices?
A voter does not have to abide by the ridiculous ranked choice system. Until this bizarre voting system is discontinued, all right-of-center voters have to do is vote as they usually do and not rank other candidates, period.
actually, rank choice voting worked well in Alaska. The problem is, two strong Republicans ran against each other, But Sarah Palin’s negatives were so high, that people whose first choice with the other Republican, picked the Democrat as their second choice over Sarah Palin. If Sarah Palin had not run, the Republicans maybe would’ve won that election. But instead they knocked each other out. The Democrat in that particular race had the plurality of votes (So she would’ve won a regular three-way race without controversy), all ranked choice voting did was confirm that the Dem was also the choice of many of the Republican voters as well, Over Sarah Palin with her high negatives.
actually it would benefit Republicans as well, it has been supported by Republicans in Utah and Alaska. Basically anywhere a majority vote is being split, regardless of what party it is happening to, will be interested in ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting does not benefit any party, it just helps find a winner who has the most support, when there are multiple candidates and the votes are divided.
it is just a way of conducting a very non-controversial runoff election, but with a single ballot saving time and expense.