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...

The Left is attempting to implement ranked-choice voting (RCV), also called instant runoff voting (IRV), in each state. RCV threatens election integrity and undermines the electorate’s ability to choose the best candidate in elections. The May 10, 2021 issue of The New American magazine explains how ranked-choice voting works and why it would harm U.S. elections: [It] is a complicated system that requires voters to assign a rank to each candidate on the ballot, regardless of whether they support that candidate. If no candidate is ranked first by a majority of voters, the lowest-performing candidate is eliminated. Voters who gave...

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...

Voters across the country weighed in on ranked choice voting ballot initiatives Tuesday, with a vast majority rejecting the system amid an intensifying debate over its effects on elections. RCV, which allows voters to rank candidates by preference rather than selecting only one, has faced mounting opposition at both state and local levels. This year’s election results featured a mixed outcome, with state-level ballot measures predominantly failing but some cities voting to adopt or maintain RCV. Here are the major takeaways from RCV ballot initiatives from the 2024 election:Measures to implement RCV in Oregon and to introduce RCV and open...

“Prop 1, the Ranked Choice Voting and Open Primaries ballot initiative, qualified to be on the general election ballot this November. If Prop 1 passes, this will be the end of the Idaho Democratic Party. The promise of Prop 1 is to allow Democrats and Independents to have a voice by choosing Republican candidates, but it also means the Republicans will be voting for Democrat candidates. This includes precinct committeemen (PCs) who elect the leadership of the Democratic Party. Imagine a concerted effort by Republicans to run for Democrat party Pc races (or maybe this is already underway). Same play...

As the number of states banning ranked-choice voting (RCV) is increasing, some are facing ballot measures this November that would implement the voting system. While 10 states have banned RCV and more may join them this November if voters vote for the ballot measures, six other states will have ballot measures to switch their elections to RCV. RCV is an election process whereby 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. RCV is being introduced in states across the...

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has threatened to leave the Republican Party over the nomination of Donald Trump. Murkowski, who has long sought to undermine Trump and the wider conservative agenda, bemoaned the fact that he was once again the party’s nominee. “I wish that as Republicans, we had … a nominee that I could get behind,” Murkowski said in an interview with CNN. “I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump.”

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...

Elected officials across the political spectrum and local Democratic and Republican parties are fighting against ranked-choice voting (RCV) as the election system will be considered by voters in multiple states next year. RCV is an election process being introduced in states across the country, but is facing pushback from both sides of the political aisle, 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...

A few hundred people met at a south Anchorage church Thursday night to kick off a signature drive aiming to get rid of ranked choice voting and go back to the way Alaska used to elect candidates. The new system, which Alaskans used for the first time last year, pairs an open primary with a general election that allows voters to rank up to four candidates. Art Mathias, a longtime Anchorage resident and founder of Wellsprings Ministries, is a sponsor of the repeal effort. He told supporters that ranked choice puts the entire country at risk. “Literally, seriously at risk,”...

North Dakota took a major step towards securing its elections on Wednesday after the state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill banning ranked-choice voting (RCV). The move aligns with the Republican National Committee, which disavowed RCV in its January meeting.In a 74-19 vote, North Dakota’s lower chamber approved HB 1273, which specifies that RCV “may not be used in determining the election or nomination of any candidate to any local, state, or federal elective office.” No North Dakota jurisdiction currently employs ranked-choice voting for elections, according to a local state news outlet.Under RCV, which critics call ” rigged-choice voting,”...

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...

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has been the overseer of some very corrupt elections since 2020. We’ve reported on Georgia’s Raffensperger extensively. We first learned of Raffensperger after the 2020 Election. He certified the election for Joe Biden three days after Election Day. This is after finding out that Raffensperger signed two agreements with Hillary attorney Marc Elias that changed the laws in the state related to absentee ballots.Raffensperger oversaw the corrupt acts in the state reported to him the night of the election via Carter Jones. This information was kept from President Trump and the rest of the...

CTH took considerable flak for reporting on the uniparty system of Georgia politics prior to the 2020 midterms. With the election in the rearview mirror, the Georgia Secretary of State is now proposing to permanently codify Democrat control of the state. (Via Reason) […] Speaking to The New York Times last week, Raffensperger said he would petition the state legislature with three separate proposals. One would force large counties to open more locations for voting early. Another would lower the vote total needed to avoid a runoff from 50 percent to 45. The third proposal is the most consequential, and...

Democrat Mary Peltola has won the race for Alaska’s at-large congressional seat, NBC News projected Wednesday, defeating former governor and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. While the election was held earlier this month, the race was not called for weeks because of Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system where voters rank the candidates in order of preference. After the first round of voting, Peltola led Palin by more than 20 percentage points, with Republican Nick Begich, a scion of one of Alaska’s most well-known political families, in third. But because Peltola failed to win more than 50 percent, the voting...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has won re-election in Alaska, dealing former President Donald Trump another loss in what has largely been a miserable midterm cycle for his hand-picked candidates in competitive Senate races. Murkowski, one of only seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, survived a challenge from Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, a former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner, in the state’s first Senate election to be decided by ranked-choice voting. Rather than limiting voters to one choice, the format allows for candidates to be ranked in order of preference. Neither Murkowski nor Tshibaka, the top two-vote...

Trump-endorsed candidate Kelly Tshibaka is tied with 21-year incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) for U.S. Senate with about 50 days until the election, national pollster Cygnal revealed Monday. The poll takes into account Alaska’s ranked-choice voting. Tshibaka leads Murkowski on the first ballot by 7.9 points and on the second by 9.3 points. On the third ballot, the poll shows Murkowski leading Tshibaka by 0.2 percent, a statistical tie. Democrat Pat Chesbro received 13.1 percent on the first ballot and 13.9 percent on the second ballot before becoming ineligible for the third ballot. The poll suggests that Murkowski’s best chance...

Ranked choice voting is on the rise in the United States, with nearly two dozen places now using the system for various offices including, most recently, New York City for its mayoral primary elections. By the end of 2021, more than 20 Utah municipalities will be using this method, which lets voters rank candidates in order of preference. Two cities in Minnesota will also try it this year: Bloomington and Minnetonka. By 2022, the state of Alaska will be using a variation of the system, as will the California cities of Albany, Eureka and Palm Desert. By 2023, Boulder, Colorado,...

In this edition, we're focusing on a single big topic: ranked-choice voting. Some critics of the US election process argue that when most voters head to the polls in November, they don't really have much of a choice on their ballots. That's because legislative and congressional districts have been carved up -- largely by politicians themselves -- to make the maps so heavily Republican or Democratic that the people who vote in primaries have effectively picked the general election winners. And that means die-hard partisan voters -- rather than the broader electorate -- exercise enormous sway over who holds elective...