JEFFERSON CITY — On Thursday, March 24th, the Missouri GOP State Executive Committee unanimously passed a resolution taking a stand against ranked-choice voting in Missouri.
An out-of-state lead group is currently gathering signatures via initiative petition in an attempt to amend Missouri’s Constitution to require ranked-choice voting. The amendment would change the state’s present party oriented plurality voting process to that of ranked-choice voting. If a sufficient number of signatures are collected, the constitutional amendment would be placed on either the August or November election ballot.
Ranked-choice voting is a system in which voters mark multiple candidates in their order of personal preference, rather than only voting for one candidate. It would cause primaries to be open, eliminating the need for voters to specify whether they want a Democrat or Republican ballot, though the candidates’ party affiliation would still be identified on the ballot.
For example, if four candidates for a particular seat who received the most votes in the primary would then move on to the general election. In the general election, after voters ranked their preferred candidates, the candidate with a simple majority, more than 50 percent, of first preference votes would be declared the winner. If no candidate receives 50 percent, of first preference votes, the candidate with the least amount of first preference votes would be eliminated and those that voted for the eliminated candidate would have their secondary votes counted instead.
This would continue until a candidate acquires a simple majority. With this method of tabulation, a voter’s ballot could ultimately be counted for a candidate they do not support. It sounds confusing because it is confusing.
Nick Myers, Missouri GOP Chairman stated, “The Missouri GOP State Executive Committee unanimously stands against ranked choice voting. Ranked choice would disenfranchise Missouri voters, just as it has everywhere it has been tried.”