Free Republic

Rep. Abe Hamadeh said ranked-choice voting is pushed by corporate interests and confuses voters.. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., is joining forces with a fellow freshman lawmaker to renew efforts in Congress to outlaw ranked-choice voting nationwide. Hamadeh and Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, recently introduced the Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act that would amend the Help America Vote Act to ban ranked-choice voting. The bill pairs Begich, whose state uses ranked-choice voting, with Hamadeh, whose state has chronically dealt with issues of election integrity, and voter trust in ballot counting. "Ranked-choice voting destroys 'one person, one vote' in our country and...

West Virginia and Wyoming took major steps toward securing their elections by passing prohibitions on the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV). On Tuesday, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed into law SB 490, which stipulates that “[n]o state, county, or local elections office may use ranked choice voting or instant runoff voting to conduct an election or nomination of any candidate in this state for any local government, statewide, or federal elective office.” Any “existing or future ordinance” adopted by a local government promoting the use of such a system would be declared void under the measure.Often referred to as...

Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine are hinging their opposition to the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, on their alleged concern that he is not fit to handle the pressures of the Pentagon job.Their paragraphs-long attempts to justify why they are going against the will of their GOP voters, however, pale in the face of their voting records for a cabinet member who abandoned his post twice without notifying Congress.Murkowski announced Thursday on X that she “cannot in good conscience support [Hegseth’s] nomination for Secretary of Defense” because...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two weeks before Election Day, activists from across the country gathered for an online rally heralding the historic number of state ballot initiatives seeking to change the way people vote. Hopes were high that voters would ditch traditional partisan primaries and embrace ballots with more candidate choices. Instead, the election reform movement lost almost everywhere it appeared on a statewide ballot. “It turns out, in retrospect, we weren’t yet ready for prime time,” said John Opdycke, president of the advocacy group Open Primaries, which organized the rally. In Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon...

Two national liberal organizations are expressing their frustration that Idaho crushed Proposition 1 by nearly 40%. Prop 1 was meant to be a turning point in Idaho for liberals. It would have implemented a California-style jungle primary by putting all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, onto one ballot. The top four vote receivers then move on to the general election, where Ranked Choice Voting determines the winner. Idahoans overwhelmingly rejected the measure despite nearly $5 million being spent to promote the false narrative that Prop 1 would have “restored open primaries.” Two groups that helped push the measure were nationwide...

Maine CD-2: It’s a Ranked Choice Voting Disaster of Democrats’ Own Making Ranked Choice Voting is causing chaos in northern Maine and Democratic strategizing in Augusta Steve Robinson November 8, 2024 Ranked Choice Voting was sold to Maine voters as a silver bullet that would clean up Maine politics, eliminate spoiler candidates, discourage negative campaigning, and have all kinds of other wonderful benefits. Instead, the reality has been increased confusion, electoral chaos, and diminished trust in the electoral process. As evidence, look no further than the drama currently on display in Maine’s Second Congressional District. The guys at the Maine...

Alaska Democrats have mounted a lawsuit against one of their colleagues as they fight to take an imprisoned congressional candidate off the state’s election ballot. The Alaska Democratic Party sued the Alaska Division of Elections on Wednesday to keep Eric Hafner off the November ballot, according to the Alaska Beacon. Although Hafner is running for Alaska’s sole House seat as a member of their party, top Democratic leaders in the state are furious at Hafner, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in New York. “This is about someone who is incarcerated, an unqualified candidate that shouldn’t have been moved...

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision Thursday that allowed a question on whether to keep the state’s new voting system to appear on the November ballot. Alaskans narrowly adopted a 2020 ballot measure that put in place open primaries and ranked choice general elections. The voting method was first used in 2022 and is again being used this year. Supporters of the method say it yields more centrist candidates willing to work across the political aisle. But a group filed a petition earlier this year seeking to repeal the voting method, arguing that the voting system is...

In a significant win for Alaska voters, the state Supreme Court has decisively ruled in favor of allowing a measure aimed at repealing the controversial ranked choice voting system to remain on the November ballot. The ruling affirms that Alaskans will have the opportunity to reject this confusing system that has muddled the state’s electoral process and left many voters frustrated. In 2022, Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola “won” reelection in Alaska to a full term in the House in November after she defeated Sarah Palin in a special election to replace Rep. Don Young. Peltola was the FIRST DEMOCRAT to...

County clerks shared their concerns with an Illinois task force looking into the possibility of changing how elections are conducted. Ranked-choice voting allows people to rank the candidates, with "one" being their favorite. The votes are tallied in rounds. If no candidate wins a majority of voters' first-choices, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, according to information from FairVote, an organization that advocates for ranked-choice voting. Some states have banned the process like Idaho, Tennessee, Montana and Florida. In Illinois, a task force is looking at implementing the idea. The Illinois Ranked-Choice Voting and Election Systems Task Force...

As Evanston prepares to become the first city in Illinois to implement ranked-choice voting in its 2025 municipal elections, the city is also set to revisit a proposed ordinance that would allow documented residents without U.S. citizenship to vote in local elections. Ald. Devon Reid (8th) introduced the ordinance at the Dec. 4 Rules Committee meeting. He said the change would increase voter turnout by allowing residents who are civically active to more fully participate in their community. “I believe it has been the march of our nation to allow more and more folks the right to vote in our...

ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee has approved legislation that would ban ranked-choice voting in Georgia. A well-funded campaign is afoot across the nation to allow ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates by preference, Senate Majority Whip Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, told members of the Senate Ethics Committee late Tuesday. Ranked-choice voting is allowed statewide only in Maine and Alaska, while Georgia permits it only for members of the military and other Georgians living overseas. But cities including San Francisco and New York City have been using ranked-choice voting, Robertson said. In New York, it took 15 days to...

Administrative agencies are having a direct effect on whether Alaskans who don’t want RCV can organize and get their message out to voters... Efforts to repeal ranked-choice voting (RCV) in Alaska are proving confusing, and chaotic — just like RCV itself. But a disturbing question lies just beyond the pro-RCV and anti-election lobby smoke bombs: Does the Alaskan government have a tacit hand in silencing concerned citizens? Ranked-choice voting is profoundly complicated to explain, which in itself should be a giant red flag. It is a proposed change to our voting system pushed nationwide by some Republican operatives as well...

VIDEONow that it is apparent that weaponizing the DOJ and using lawfare against Trump by charging him in multiple court cases leading into the 2024 election is NOT stopping Trump, look for the Democrats to desperately attempt to introduce Ranked Choice Voting in the Battleground States to stop Trump since that bizarre type of voting system negates the effect of third party candidates who would draw votes away from Biden. No wonder that the Trump hating Rolling Stoned is hyping Ranked Choice Voting in a dopey "instructional" video.

As ranked-choice voting gains momentum, election integrity advocates are fighting back over what the call a “confusing” voting system that they say would give the left more power. Ranked-choice voting is an election process being introduced across the country, amid pushback from some states, including efforts to ban it. With RCV, if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, then a runoff system is triggered. When voters cast their ballots, they rank each candidate in order of first-to-last. If one candidate doesn't reach the 50% plus-one vote threshold, then the candidate with the least amount of first-choice votes...

In the lead-up to the 2020 election, out-of-state dark money poured into Alaska to hijack the state’s elections by tricking voters into implementing a ranked-choice voting system. Now, following a midterm election fraught with record-low turnout and confused voters, Alaska’s conservatives are fighting to take back control of their state’s electoral process.Known as Alaskans for Honest Elections, the grassroots organization is leading a statewide signature-collecting effort to put an initiative on the 2024 ballot to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting (RCV) system, which voters narrowly adopted in 2020. Last month, Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom certified the group’s application for a...

As different states and municipalities across the country adopt ranked-choice voting, it’s become obvious this mind-boggling election system deserves a new name: rigged-choice voting.After nearly two months of tabulation, Alameda County, California, — one such ranked-choice voting (RCV) adoptee — announced it got the count wrong for its Nov. 8 election. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the California county admitted it made systemic errors while tabulating ballots. As a result of the snafu, an Oakland School Board race flipped: The top vote-getter (and certified winner) must now hand his board seat over to the third-place finisher.While gross negligence on...

Alaska’s sole congressional seat, which had been in GOP hands for 49 years, was recently captured by Democrat Mary Peltola. The victory has been touted by liberals as either vindication of their agenda or as portending the end of the career of Sarah Palin, Peltola’s most high-profile opponent. Yet the result, which took weeks to finalize, was easily explainable: It was a function of Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting (RCV) and Top-four Primary (TFP) system — a system electoral engineers would like to institute nationwide. In essence, this system created a situation in which Palin and another Republican, Nick Begich, were...

Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola won reelection to a full term in the House after she defeated Sarah Palin in a special election to replace Rep. Don Young in August. Peltola was the FIRST DEMOCRAT to win the House seat in solid red Alaska in 50 Years! Ranked-choice voting and mail-in ballots were implemented by referendum in 2020. The results of the November 8 election were announced Wednesday night.

Alaska’s lengthy and convoluted election process is set to come to an end on Wednesday when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) and Rep. Mary Peltola (D) are likely to finally emerge as the winners — largely thanks to the state’s new ranked-choice system. The Alaska Division of Elections will reveal the final unofficial results on Wednesday night. Murkowski leads Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka by less than 1,700 votes — 43.3 percent to 42.7 percent. In the House contest, Peltola holds a commanding lead, with 48.7 percent support over Republicans Sarah Palin at 25.8 percent and Nick Begich at 23.4 percent.