As part of their commitment to increase faith in elections, Congressman Abraham Hamadeh (AZ) and Congressman Nick Begich (AK) are co-sponsoring the Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act.
H.R. 3040 could standardize federal elections by eliminating Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). It amends the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and will help restore trust so American citizens can vote confidently by prohibiting the confusing and disenfranchising voting scheme of RCV.
RCV, also known as instant-runoff voting, allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If a majority is not reached after the initial vote, the candidate with the fewest votes gets eliminated, and votes are redistributed based on voters’ other choices.
Several states, including Washington and Arizona, have seen attempts to implement RCV statewide, which would undermine fair elections. The controversial RCV method of voting is currently being used in Alaska, Maine, Minnesota, Hawaii, CA, NY, DC, and other local jurisdictions.
In 2008, it was tried in Pierce County, WA, and failed miserably due to voter frustration, confusion, the complexity of RCV, higher admin costs, slow vote tabulation, etc. In 2009, Pierce County voters repealed RCV by a margin of 70.65% to 29.35%. The city of Seattle is scheduled to use RCV in 2027.
RCV has been banned in at least 17 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
“The same Democrat pawns who support allowing non-citizen voting without voter ID and same-day voter registration also want to turn our democracy into a rank choice voting scheme, their motives are clear – they do not want to help Americans vote - they only want to help corrupt politicians win. Fortunately, our citizens see through the lies of expensive glossy mailings and reject Ranked Choice Voting,” said Rep. Hamadeh.
“The nation does not need more uncertainty and confusion injected into the federal election process. One person, one vote’ is a proven, tried-and-true method that is easy to understand, easy to audit, and quick to report. Experiments with our national election systems risk disenfranchisement of voters and lead to outcomes that do not represent the true will of the American people,” said Rep. Begich
WITH RANKED-CHOICE VOTING, NOT ALL VOTES COUNT!
Leftist groups claim RCV will improve voter confidence by providing more candidate choices, decreasing negative campaigning, and ensuring majority rule. These are false promises; the proliferation of RCV is, in fact, harmful to American elections and should be banned.
In traditional elections, every submitted ballot that follows the instructions is counted towards the result, but this isn’t the case with RCV.
While many RCV ballots are discarded due to voter error in following convoluted instructions, ballots that follow the instructions to the letter can also be rejected because the voter ranked candidates who are no longer in contention.
As candidates are eliminated through multiple rounds of tabulation, voters have their ballots “exhausted.” An exhausted ballot occurs when a voter overvotes, undervotes, or ranks only candidates that are mathematically eliminated from contention. Because these votes are not tabulated in the final round, their ballot does not influence the election after it becomes exhausted.
For example, if a ballot becomes exhausted in round four of an election that requires 20 rounds of tabulation, the voter’s ballot is not included in the final tally; it is as if they never voted on Election Day.
Because of ballot exhaustion, winners of RCV races do not necessarily represent the choice of all voters who participated. RCV claims to protect majority rule, but in reality, RCV creates an artificial majority by eliminating the votes of the lowest-scoring candidates during successive tabulations.
For a voter’s voice to fully count in every round of an RCV election, they must vote for all candidates on the ballot, even those the voter may not support.
An extensive study of Maine elections found that, of 96 RCV elections, 60% of RCV victors did not win by a majority of the total votes cast.
RCV was not fair to Alaska voters in the 2022 Congressional Special Election, held in a deep-red state for AK’s only congressional district. Sarah Palin and other GOP candidates received 60% of the vote, but thanks to the RCV convoluted process, which disenfranchises voters, a Democrat somehow won the race.
An initiative to repeal RCV in Alaska is now underway for signature gathering. If successful, it will appear on the ballot in 2026. A 2024 initiative repeal effort nearly passed, with 341,000 ballots cast, the measure failed by only 743 votes.
Many, including Hamadeh, are calling the RCV system "flawed" and argue that it gives the minority party an unfair advantage if the majority party is split between two top favorites. Hamadeh’s staff recently put out a video, explaining how ranked-choice voting produces “devastating results where no one's top candidate gets elected." This leads to unpopular and unqualified candidates winning office.
Thank you to Congressmen Hamadeh and Begich for their advocacy against RCV and co-sponsorship of this important legislation. With Republicans holding majorities in both chambers (House: 220-215; Senate: 53-47), passage of an eventual law is possible but requires unity. Let’s hope lawmakers eventually ban ranked-choice voting at all levels of government! The voters deserve better!
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