Ranked-choice voting (RCV)
ballotpedia.org
Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

RCV trends: Four states ban RCV in 2025, bringing the number of states with bans to 15.

(Okay idk why it says 15 up here then later says 16, somebody on that site probably didn’t update the title text)

As of April 30, five states had banned RCV in 2025, which brought the total number of states that prohibit RCV to 16.

  • Gov. Mark Gordon (Republican) signed HB 165 on March 18.
  • West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (Republican) signed SB 490 the March 19.
  • Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (Democrat) signed SB 6 into law on April 1.
  • North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong (Republican) signed HB 1297 on April 15.
  • Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Republican) signed HB 1706 which became law on April 17.

Six states banned RCV in 2024.

Why YSK: If you’re a US-American, its time to pay attention to State and Local politics instead of solely on the Federal. There is a trend in conservative jurisdictions to stop progress in making elecoral systems more fair. Use this opportunity as a rallying-cry to pass Ranked-Choice Voting in progressive jurisdictions, and hopefully everyone else takes notes. Sometimes, all you need is a few states adopting a law to become the catalyst for it to become the model for the entire country, for better or for worse. Don’t allow anti-RCV legislations to dominate, counter the propaganda with pro-RCV arguments. Time to turn the tide.

Edit: fixed formatting

Edit 2: Added in the map so you don’t have to click the link:

See the pattern? 🤔

  • Randelung@lemmy.world
    57·
    1 day ago

    People keep commenting this without context and it’s driving me mad. It’s factually wrong, so at least tell us what you mean in the figurative sense.

      • Randelung@lemmy.world
        24·
        1 day ago

        No, this is just the first time anyone actually invested more than the one sentence into an explanation. Can you give me a little more to look into? I genuinely have no idea what you’re referring to.

        • andros_rex@lemmy.world
          6·
          23 hours ago

          African Americans were supposed to be given the right to vote after abolition.

          There was a brief period of time during Reconstruction where that happened. However, many states came up with complicated contrivances to make it impossible to vote - poll taxes, “literacy tests,” etc. Effectively, it was a right solely on paper until LBJ in the 60s. Conservatives throwing a massive fit about this is why we have the insane fascistic Right we do right now - they were pro public education until Black kids got to go to the same kids as white kids.

          Women weren’t guaranteed the right to vote until 1920. Conservatives today are trying to revoke the 19th amendment and undo that.

          • Randelung@lemmy.world
            14·
            20 hours ago

            Yes, there’s tons of things that make the process unfair, but does that make the system not be a democracy? It’s a flawed one, one that basically only allows white dudes to vote, but the system is still a democracy.

            • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              1·
              8 hours ago
              • Blocked the right to vote for one sex
              • Blocked the right to vote for non-whites
              • Polls taxes blocked the right to vote for non-whites and the poor
              • Excluded Natives from voting
              • The first vote for the president had less than 1% of Americans vote, Washington running unopposed for his terms
              • Voter ID laws are a tax on the poor
              • Gerrymandering where the politicians choose the voters.
              • Electoral college
              • No time off for voting, meaning the working poor aren’t likely to vote
              • Voting by mail blocked by most states, the ones that the EC weighs unequally
              • Parties have sued to keep people and other parties off ballots
              • Parties have argued before court to not legally require fair primaries, as there’s no legal basis for it

              Yeah, democracy.

            • stelelor@lemmy.ca
              6·
              18 hours ago

              What if only people who make over $500k annually can vote? Is that still a democracy?

              • Randelung@lemmy.world
                21·
                17 hours ago

                I get you’re referring to a plutocracy. The question is if the US is so far gone that it’s out of flawed democracy territory - the lines are definitely blurred and I’d argue it depends on the state.

          • Randelung@lemmy.world
            17·
            24 hours ago

            All that to say it is a democracy after all, just even more condescendingly. Wonderful.

            • wanderingmagus@lemm.ee
              22·
              18 hours ago

              Okay, then, is Nazi Germany a democracy? It has votes, after all. How about fascist Italy? Is that a democracy?

              • Randelung@lemmy.world
                23·
                17 hours ago

                A democracy requires free elections, so no to both.

                I don’t think the US is that far gone, though. Some states do care about the democratic process, as the graphic indicates. I don’t think the US has left flawed democracy territory yet, at least not everywhere.

                The US’ democracy index is falling, but it’s still comparably high, between France and Italy.

                But I did say factually wrong. I do admit it’s not that cut and dry, and the republic organisation isn’t everything.