Long viewed as an intriguing, if somewhat wonky, approach to conducting elections, ranked-choice voting — allowing voters to list candidates in order of preference instead of selecting just one — appears to be having a moment.
Across the country, voters have adopted the system for municipal and county elections in each of the last 27 times the issue has been put to them.
Nevada and Oregon — and perhaps Colorado and Idaho as well — will hold referendums on adopting the system this fall.
Critics call the system confusing and even undemocratic, since candidates who initially get the most first-place votes don’t always win in the end.
But just how popular ranked-choice voting is may depend on the group that has most often waged tooth-and-claw battles against it: conservatives, and in particular Republican political figures, who have ideological and practical reasons to oppose the system.
Persons:
Long, don’t
Organizations:
Republican
Locations:
Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Alaska