Measure 117
Establishes ranked-choice voting (RCV) for federal and statewide offices, eliminating party primaries for these races.
Measure 117
Establishes ranked-choice voting (RCV) for federal and statewide offices, eliminating party primaries for these races.
The book of Psalms opens with a verse that tells us “Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.” Measure 117 was sent to the ballot by a vote of the Legislature. That vote had unanimous Democrat support and near unanimous opposition by Republicans. While that doesn’t settle the matter, it does mean that great caution should be taken regarding RCV.
A handful of states have adopted RCV in the past few years. The result is more Democrat wins and Republican losses. One reason for this is that it centralizes voting procedures in the state rather than in county election offices. This loss of local control leads to increasing the risk of voter fraud and manipulation of the complicated RCV process. The Democrats are becoming rather adept at this. RCV results in greatly reduced transparency and a diminishment of trust in the process of elections. It’s no wonder that RCV results in lower voter turnout.
But what is it? That’s complicated and that’s part of the problem. One state that initiated it had to send out a 19 page manual to voters explaining it. Don’t believe the slogans its supporters will flood you with. Most of the states that tried it are now getting rid of it.
At its most basic level RCV means you rank your choices of a number of candidates in order of your preference. If no one gets fifty percent the complicated computer process of throwing out some ballots and recategorizing the totals begins. The process then goes on and on until someone gets fifty percent of the remaining ballots.
The loss of transparency, trustworthiness, and simplicity and the movement from local control to state control, and the wasting of some ballots, makes RCV a bad choice. In addition, it is expensive. New equipment and software would drive costs substantially higher, and the only return on this investment would be to the party that reduces our liberty. No wonder that most of the states that adopted RCV are now moving to repeal it. We urge a no vote on Measure 117.
