By Chris Powell

There are a lot of ideas for election reform these days, some of which are terrible. Making it easier to participate is fashionable, although more voters is no guarantee of better elected officials. Jungle primary schemes mimicking California style Top-Two are popular among some, despite the fact that it can often disenfranchise huge swathes of the electorate by reducing general election choices to only members of the dominant party. National Popular Vote supporters are working to undermine the Electoral College, an effort which they don’t seem to realize has great potential to backfire on them. However, there is one proposal that is being enacted in many places across the country with supporters from all across the ideological spectrum. Unlike those other so-called reforms that dilute or subvert the will of the individual voter, Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) would empower you and increase your ability to express your preferences when you mark your ballot.

RCV, also known as Instant Runoff Voting, is simple. Rather than only being able to mark one candidate to the exclusion of all others, you the voter would have the opportunity to rank your first choice, second choice, third, and so on depending on how many candidates are in the race. If no candidate has a majority after the first choice votes are counted, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and the second choices on those ballots are counted. If no candidate attains a majority, the process is repeated until there is a majority winner. In addition to putting more power in your hands as a voter to express who you prefer, RCV disincentivizes negative campaigning and personal attacks as candidates will have motivation to want to be the second or third choice of a rival’s supporters. And no one will be able to be elected without the approval of a majority of voters. Of course, if only one candidate is acceptable to you there is no requirement to mark any others. You would have the power to rank as few candidates as you actually want, even if it’s just one (or none!).

RCV is used in many countries around the world and in cities all across our country, as well as by political party conventions. A notable recent example is the Virginia Republican Party state convention where Glenn Youngkin was nominated in the sixth round of the instant runoff. Youngkin, of course, went on to win the general election by a narrow margin to become Governor.

A better idea of how RCV might work in Oklahoma can be gained by looking at past elections. In 2002 Brad Henry won a very narrow plurality victory (43.3% to 42.6%) over Steve Largent to become Governor of our state, with the remaining votes going to Gary Richardson running as an Independent. While surely many voters who normally support Democrats chose Richardson, if those Richardson voters could have ranked their preferences it is undeniable that a sizable majority would have marked Largent as their second choice. Another example is the 2010 race for the GOP nomination in State Senate Dist. 44 where James Davenport came in first out of four candidates, but was just four votes away from a majority, causing the race to go to a runoff. Davenport then lost the runoff to Ralph Shortey who would eventually be disgraced.. Had that race employed RCV, there is no doubt that Davenport would have been elected rather than Shortey who now resides in federal prison. In fact, RCV would eliminate the need for expensive, low-turnout runoff elections which would allow for a shorter campaign season.

Ranked Choice Voting, also called Instant Runoff Voting, means a candidate must gain the approval of a majority of voters to get elected. It eliminates the need for runoffs where a smaller group of voters have the power to overturn the initial election. And most importantly, it gives you greater power to show who you support, and who you don’t, when you fill out your ballot. Visit rankthevoteok.org for more information on promoting RCV in Oklahoma.

Chris is a former state chairman of the Libertarian Party, and was the party’s nominee for governor in 2018. He is in his second term on the Bethany City Council. He can be contacted at: okcspowell@gmail.com