Fresh off Democratic victories on Nov. 7, two US senators have a plan to ensure the left never loses again.
On Nov. 16, Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Angus King (I-Maine) introduced a bill to bribe state and local governments to embrace ranked-choice voting.
It’s a confusing system that undermines core democratic principles like straightforward elections and “one person, one vote.”
And it may well favor Democrats.
Yet there’s a growing chance Republicans get fooled into going along.
Bennet and King want to dole out $40 million in federal grants to states that enact ranked-choice voting for federal, state and local elections.
Under this newfangled system, voters rank multiple candidates instead of the tried-and-true method of voting for just one.
If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the worst-performing are eliminated from the race, and the voters who chose them have their votes divvied up among their other picks until a candidate has a majority.
If a voter doesn’t rank enough candidates in successive rounds, their ballots are discarded.
The senators are selling this complex system, says Bennet, to give people “more options at the ballot box” and reward “candidates who appeal to the broadest swath of voters.”
Their proposal even has a nonpartisan veneer, since Bennett is a Democrat and King technically an independent.
Yet King caucuses with Democrats and votes with President Biden 99% of the time, making him one of the most reliable Democratic votes in the Senate.
Besides, he’s seen how ranked-choice has blocked Republicans from winning competitive elections in his home state.
Maine implemented ranked-choice voting starting with the 2018 midterm elections.
It was sold with similar promises of increased electoral competition and more “normal” election winners, yet it was largely championed by Democrats who despised Gov. Paul LePage’s two plurality victories in 2010 and 2014.
Under ranked-choice voting, he would almost certainly have lost both races.
Democrats immediately benefited from the new system. In 2018, US Rep. Bruce Poliquin — a Republican — got the most votes in the first round, with 46.33%. He would’ve won under the traditional system.
Yet the final winner was Democrat Jared Golden, who initially only got 45.58%.
The 2021 Portland Charter Commission race saw something similar happen.
With four seats open, 10 candidates ran, and the second-most popular candidate in the initial tally was a Republican.
Yet once ranked-choice voting kicked in, that candidate’s support plummeted, with far-left candidates taking all four seats — including one candidate who only got 4% of the vote at first.
Read Related Also: Budget bottom line improves but household pressures remain
Something similar happened in Alaska: In a 2022 special election for the state’s at-large congressional seat, two GOP candidates split 60% of the vote.
Yet Democrat Mary Peltola ultimately won — in a state that voted for Donald Trump over Joe Biden by 10 points in 2020.
Peltola won again in the general election three months later, even though the same two Republicans initially got a greater share of the vote.
While Peltola might have won a plurality victory under traditional voting, ranked-choice voting still twisted the outcome.
Among the biggest problems with the system is that it encourages more candidates to enter a race on the assumption that they have a greater chance of winning once competitors get eliminated and have their votes redistributed.
Yet that risks throwing an election to a fringe candidate, one who voters may not know much about or who typically wouldn’t win under the tried-and-true system — say, a Democrat in a deep-red state.
Could the reverse happen, with a Republican winning in a blue state?
Maine’s experience makes that seem unlikely, and in any case, ranked-choice voting is overwhelmingly backed by Democrats who sense a political opening.
At a time when Donald Trump continues to draw widespread support, Democrats want to cast Republicans as “extreme,” and ranked-choice voting makes it easier to defeat these candidates nationwide.
Indeed, Democrats have shown a willingness to tar nearly any Republican with these labels.
Yet even if the system were to benefit Republicans, it would still violate the “one-person, one-vote” principle, because if you don’t rank enough candidates, your ballot gets tossed.
Many moderate Republicans don’t see the threat.
In some states, ranked-choice voting has been introduced with GOP support.
Nationally, the most prominent group pushing it — Unite America — has former GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo on its board.
Outside groups have roped in former Republican leaders from across the country to push Congress to support ranked-choice voting.
Two former state GOP chairmen actually wrote in The Hill recently that “ranked-choice voting is a win for Republicans.”
In fact, ranked-choice voting would likely ensure more Republican losses.
The GOP should fight the new Senate bill and oppose ranked-choice voting in the states, where a record number of bills mandating it are likely to be introduced in 2024.
The last thing Republicans should do is join with Democrats to stack the deck against themselves.
Madeline Malisa, a former chief counsel to Maine Gov. Paul LePage, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
