With an overwhelming "yes" vote, the Louisiana Senate recently decided that Louisiana voters cannot be trusted to evaluate candidates and rank them according to individual voters' preferences.
The Senate voted 29-9 in favor of Senate Bill 101. The measure says a “ranked-choice voting or instant runoff voting method … shall not be used in determining the election or nomination of any candidate to any local, state, or federal elective office in this state.”
The measure moves to the state House next. If House members approve the measure as written, Louisiana would join Florida, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and Tennessee in banning something that only exists elsewhere, though its popularity is growing.
I've written about this previously. It's clearly time to revisit the conversation.
I suggest House members table the measure and create a joint House-Senate study committee to explore the various forms of ranked-choice voting, or RCV, with a deadline to report back after getting public input. I'd even like to see a statewide referendum on RCV.
More than a dozen states use some form of RCV, either statewide or in cities or political parties that choose to use that election method.
State Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, and state Sen. Sam Jenkins, D-Shreveport, voted with the Republican Senate majority to ban ranked-choice voting in Louisiana. Jenkins told me that he likes our open primary system because it gives voters options they understand. RCV "could become difficult for voters to understand," he said.
I disagree.
Let's look at October's open primary as an example.
Jeff Landry won the gubernatorial primary outright with 52% of the vote in a field of 15 candidates. If Louisiana had used ranked-choice voting, Landry likely would have prevailed without "second choice" votes. But, he might have campaigned differently to ensure a win, by going after second-place votes.
The campaigns to elect our attorney general and treasurer went to November runoffs, which cost taxpayers dearly considering how few voters went to the polls. Each runoff winner got fewer votes than they did in October. The same thing happened with seven state legislative candidates.
The RCV systems are bipartisan or nonpartisan, as we've seen in Alaska and Maine. Nevada and Oregon voters will get a chance to consider ranked-choice voting in referenda this year.
Who would be opposed to that?
Watch dog group Documented, in a partnership with Rolling Stone, looked at who's behind anti-RCV efforts. Conservative opposition groups typically use the word "integrity" or similar language in their state-by-state campaigns against ranked-choice voting. They say it is disenfranchises voters.
Those groups include the Honest Elections Project, Election Integrity Network, the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. ALEC drafted a model bill that GOP-majority state legislatures have used to preemptively ban RCV before the idea gains traction.
RCV foes in Louisiana include bill sponsor state Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, and others who don't want to risk seeing MAGA candidates lose under an election system that works against extremists on either end of the political spectrum.
In a social media post, Miguez called ranked-choice voting a "process that produces anything but fair outcomes from being used to conduct state or local elections in Louisiana."
Not all Republicans hold that view.
Deep-red Utah's major political parties — the Dems and the GOP — both use RCV to elect party leaders. Utah also launched a pilot program in 2018 that allows cities to use ranked-choice voting in nonpartisan municipal elections through 2025. A recent poll from the conservative Sutherland Institute and Y2 Analytics found that 60% of Utahns believe ranked voting should be an option for local elections — and state lawmakers earlier this month killed a bill to terminate the pilot program early.
Ranked-choice voting isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. It comes in any number of forms. The people, through their legislative representatives, should have a chance to consider the options and vote yea or nay on them.
The measure passed by Louisiana senators includes an interesting carve-out: It would not apply to “absentee voting by military and overseas voters pursuant to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.” The act is a federal law, and a 2011 state law allows overseas military service members and civilians living abroad to use a form of ranked-choice voting in federal elections.
I haven't heard any of them complain about being "confused." Have you?
Thank goodness those helping to protect our nation abroad can continue to save time by ranking their preferred candidates in federal primaries, as can Louisianans who live overseas.
I'd like to see all Louisianans have the same option in all elections.
We need an objective study of RCV — and a statewide referendum on it.
