this post was submitted on 20 May 2025

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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)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

205 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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? 🤔

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The ballot is the same for all ranked voting methods. The method of determining winner from those ballots varies, and some are clearly worse.

For instance, if a candidate would beat all others 1-on-1 (Condorcet winner), then should a decent method always select that candidate as winner? RCV doesn't do that.

Example

A > B > C: 2

C > B > A: 2

B > C > A: 1

Who wins according to instant run-off? C. Who wins against every opponent 1-on-1? B.

Other methods also fail.

This nice table compares voting methods by a wide range of properties. I don't think it hurts to make a more informed decision before backing a method that will be difficult to change. The US got stuck with FPTP through inadequate research, and it'd be great not to repeat that mistake.

While rated voting methods fail the Condorcet winner criterion, by rating instead of ranking candidates they satisfy another set of criteria also worth considering.

Among ranked voting methods, ranked pairs seems most compelling to me. Among rated voting methods, approval seems pretty good (and extremely simple).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I retract this portion of the comment and put in this spoiler

Among ranked voting methods, ranked pairs seems most compelling to me.

I think that'd fail miserably in the real world.

Think about the average voter. They see this ballot:

A vs B?

A vs C?

A vs D?

B vs C?

B vs D?

C vs D?

Yea I think they're gonna freak out upon seeing this ballot. Right now, the most important goal should be to get rid of the spoiler effect and FPTP, rather than finding the best system.

approval seems pretty good (and extremely simple).

I can see a bit of strategic voting happening.

Let me demonstrate:

For the sake of simplicity, let's say we have 3 candidates, and no term limits:

Trump, Biden, Sanders

Biden and Sander voters dispise trump, their preference in RCV is (example):

Biden>Sanders>Trump: 30%
Sander>Biden>Trump: 25%
Trump>Sanders>Biden: 23%
Trump>Biden>Sanders: 22%

Okay, so lets say they all approve their top 2:

Biden: 77%
Sanders: 78%
Trump: 45%

Okay we have president Sanders! Congrats, right?

Well, now the trumpers who approved sanders are like: "Hey wait a minute, we made our daddy lose because we approved Sanders"

All the trumpers now have a meeting and decided that next election, they don't approve Sanders or Biden as a strategic vote.

So now, Election 2 Results:

Biden: 55%
Sanders: 55%
Trump: 45%

Oh great, it's a tie. The law says that the election have to be re-done to solve the tie:

Now this next election, all people who preferred Sanders first go to a Sanders supporter meeting and started saying: "Lets disapprove Biden so Bernie can win!"

Simultaneously, Biden voters will be like: "Lets disapprove Sanders so Biden can win!"

Next election results:

Trump: 45%
Biden: 30%
Sanders 25%

Congrats, we have a glorified FPTP and spoiler effect yet again!

Now, other election systems could also have strategic voting, but its less likely with, for example, RCV, since you can rank candidates.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yea I think they’re gonna freak out upon seeing this ballot.

I think you missed the first sentence I wrote:

The ballot is the same for all ranked voting methods.

Maybe explaining what you think that means would clear up confusion?

I can see a bit of strategic voting happening.

Yes, approval voting is indeed susceptible to strategies including burial, which leads to a "chicken dilemma".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Ah nvm, I thought the ballot was gonna lok like this: