How “Rank” Can You Get? – Buz Blog

“Ranked Choice Voting is an attempt to confuse voters and dilute their votes.”  Buz Williams

Politicians of all stripes will purposely confuse voters when placing items on the ballot or introducing a new policy that they want passed into law. They do this because if they told the truth about the issue, the voters would overwhelmingly reject it. The best and most recent example of this phenomenon is the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” which was signed into law a couple of years ago. Who could be against reducing inflation? Yet the only thing it really had to do with inflation was to greatly increase it.

Now Arizona voters are being accosted while entering or exiting Supermarkets, gyms and retail stores by paid or radical signature gatherers for the purpose of putting an initiative on the ballot that would change the way we currently vote in primaries. If this initiative gets enough signatures to get on the ballot, and is voted in, Arizona will have “Ranked Choice Voting”, (RCV), like a few other states have. Do not sign this initiative.

There are a lot of reasons to reject RCV. First and foremost is the proverbial wisdom, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In Arizona, we have primary elections where Democrats can vote for the candidate they want to represent them in the general election. Republicans can vote for their favorite to represent them in the general election. The same goes for the members of any other registered party. Independents can vote in any party primary by indicating to the County Recorder which mail-in ballot they want.

A second reason for rejecting RCV is that it is a confusing process. All candidates from every party are listed and the voter is asked to rank them on the ballot. If one of those candidates gets 51% of the vote, that candidate wins. The Texas Public Policy Foundation published a research paper in March of 2023 that explains what happens if no one gets 51% of the vote: “If no candidate earns a majority of first-preference votes, then the person with the least number of first-preference votes is eliminated. The first preference votes for this candidate are eliminated, and the affected ballots have their second-preference vote elevated to first preference. The results are then calculated again, and if no candidate has still received a majority of first preference votes, the cycle continues.” So, in other words, if your vote was for the candidate who got the least number of votes, your first vote has been eliminated. Depending on how the new first preference votes are counted, your second choice may also be eliminated. How many voters are going to be disenfranchised after the first count or the recalculated second vote?

How hard will it be to count the votes, recalculate if there is no majority and continue until a winner is declared? How long will it take? Isn’t it taking too long now to declare an election winner?

If you are confused, you are not alone. Maine has RCV and the voters were so confused that the advocates felt compelled to publish a 19 page manual to enable the voters to maneuver through the RCV voting process. If it takes 19 pages to explain a voting process, voter turnout will probably be greatly diminished. Such a circuitous voting procedure not only causes confusion and voter error, it is an invitation to election challenges, fraud and abuse of the election process. Why would we want to bring RCV to Arizona. In other words, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”