States Will Choose Whether To Adopt or Abandon Ranked Choice Voting
For those of us who actually vote, the process can be dispiriting. It often involves waiting in long lines on a weekday at some random schoolhouse or decommissioned train depot, just to cast a ballot for a candidate that chances are, you don’t even particularly like—you just hate the other guy more.
Ranked choice voting could potentially help break up these doldrums. On a ranked choice ballot, instead of picking one candidate from a list, voters rank each candidate in order of preference. If one candidate wins an outright majority, then that person wins; if not, then the lowest-performing candidate is eliminated, and their ballots are re-tallied and allotted to whomever they picked as their second choice. This process repeats until one candidate passes 50 percent.
While ranked choice can’t cure what’s wrong with American politics, it can at least prevent the election of candidates without majoritarian support. It could also help potentially break up the two-party logjam by allowing people to vote for alternative candidates without worrying about acting as a spoiler—after all, if their desired candidate doesn’t win, their vote will be re-tallied for whomever they would likely have settled for anyway.
The November elections represent an inflection point in the widespread adoption of ranked choice voting: Four states and Washington, D.C., will vote on whether to adopt such a system of their own. And of the two states that currently use ranked choice voting statewide, one will decide whether to abandon it.
Colorado
Some cities in the Centennial State already use ranked choice voting, most prominently Boulder. Proposition 131 would implement ranked choice statewide for U.S. senator and representative, state senator and representative, governor, lieutenant governor, and certain other state offices.
Currently, Colorado has partially closed primaries, open only to party members and unaffiliated voters—members of one party cannot participate in another party’s primary. Proposition 131 would replace party primaries with “an all-candidate primary election featuring all candidates for those state and federal offices, with the final four candidates advancing to the general elections.” On the general election ballot, “the voter may rank candidates in order of preference” and “may choose to rank as many or as few candidates for the covered offices…as the voter wishes, including ranking just one candidate per covered office.” The votes would then be tallied and re-tallied as needed until one candidate achieved a majority.
The measure has attracted both supporters and detractors from each major political party. “Colorado has changed in the last 10 years,” said former Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams. “We went from a third…in the electorate to now, nearly 50% of the electorate are unaffiliated voters. They are rejecting both parties, and they’re rejecting both parties because both parties are going to their extremes, both Republicans and Democrats.”
Gov. Jared Polis (D) also endorsed the measure, writing on Facebook, “I think instant runoff voting is better than our current system because it gives voters more choices. I’m hopeful that if it passes it will encourage participation and improve our democracy.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R–Colo.) called ranked choice voting a “scheme” in a 2023 post on X and pledged, “I will oppose this effort to rig our electoral system in Colorado with everything I have.” The Colorado Democratic Party voted this month to oppose the initiative. The Green Party of Colorado also opposes the measure, with party Co-Chair Patrick Dillon saying he supports ranked choice voting but opposes the measure’s dissolution of closed primaries.
If passed, the measure would take effect on January 1, 2026, but a recent state law imposed preliminary requirements on the rollout of a ranked choice system that will likely delay implementation until at least 2028. Nonetheless, the measure is expected to pass, with a recent poll finding nearly 65 percent of likely voters planning or likely to vote “Yes.”
Idaho
Much like in Colorado, Proposition 1 would “abolish Idaho’s party primaries” and replace them with “a top-four primary and voters may vote on all candidates.” The four with the highest vote counts will advance to the general election, which would use a ranked choice ballot.
“For the past 12 years, Idaho has had closed primary elections,” notes an explainer video from Idahoans for Open Primaries. “Closed primaries block 270,000 independent voters from voting in the most important elections, and that’s just not right. Elections are taxpayer funded, and when we’re paying for it, we shouldn’t be forced to pick a side to participate.”
Republicans in the deep-red state are split on the issue. “Every registered voter should have the right to weigh in on choosing our leaders,” former Gov. Butch Otter (R) said last year when endorsing the measure. “Independents, including a lot of military veterans, have been excluded from having their say because of the closed GOP primary.”
Meanwhile, Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon called ranked choice voting “a pernicious plot to take away your ability to vote for conservative lawmakers.”
“The blanket pr
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