Ranked choice voting sounded like a fix. Put your candidates in order, the spoiler effect disappears, everyone walks away happier. At least, that was the sales pitch yesendrcv.
It seems a lot of voters aren't convinced. Campaigns branded "Yes End RCV" have been popping up in states and cities that adopted the system, and they're gaining traction. Not because people hate elections. Because people can't stand not understanding the process.
What people don't always realize about ranked choice voting: it puts a heavy burden on the average voter. Order anywhere from five to ten candidates in order of preference? Most people show up to vote for one person. Perhaps two, at most, if there's a tight primary. Asking Grandma to rank the school board race like she's filling out a fantasy football draft board is a big lift.
And then comes the tallying. RCV elections can take days to resolve. Anchorage learned this firsthand. Ballots get shuffled through multiple rounds of elimination, and by round four, even people tracking the results in real time are lost. Clarity suffers when the process itself seems like sleight of hand.
Money is a factor as well. New voting machines, training for poll workers, public education efforts explaining a system half the electorate has never used — none of that is free. Smaller counties in particular bear the brunt of it.
RCV advocates will tell you it cuts down on attack ads and encourages candidates to build wider coalitions. Fair point. Candidates chasing those second-place rankings have less incentive to trash their opponents outright. That's a real upside, and it's worth admitting even if you're unconvinced by RCV overall.
But the opponents of ranked choice voting argue it's not a fair trade. Simpler ballots. Faster results. Fewer spoiled votes from people who filled out the ranking wrong. They point to "exhausted" ballots — ballots that get thrown out because a voter left too many rankings blank — as proof the system silently shuts out people who thought they were participating fully.
Maine took its own path. Alaska has wrestled with repeal efforts more than once. Massachusetts voters rejected RCV outright back in 2020. There's no national consensus here, and honestly, there might never be.
One thing is certain: this is no longer a fringe grumble anymore. It's appearing in signature drives, ballot initiatives, state legislature debates. Whatever side of the fence you're on, the debate over vote-counting methods is far from settled, and Yes End RCV represents one loud voice in a conversation that's far from over.