During committee hearings this week in both the House and the Senate, it became clear that many members want to ban ranked-choice voting (RCV), despite having no idea what it is.
Delegate Rick Hillenbrand even said he consulted multiple AI chatbots to explain the issue, and that he still doesn’t understand the process.
So, what is ranked-choice voting?
First, while RCV has many benefits, it is not currently used in West Virginia. Banning it has no practical effect on our elections.
While RCV differs slightly between jurisdictions that use it in the U.S., it generally allows voters to rank candidates running for the same position from most preferred to least preferred.
When ballots are counted, all first-choice votes are tallied. If a candidate receives more than 50 percent of first choice votes, they win.
If no candidate receives more than 50 percent, the candidate with the fewest number of first-choice votes is eliminated. Officials then tally up the second-choice votes from people who had selected the eliminated candidate. Those votes are then added to the first-choice tally.
The process is repeated until a candidate surpasses 50 percent of the vote and is declared the winner.
RCV would make our elections more equitable, allow for more diverse perspectives in races, and provide more choices to voters.
With limited time in session and no shortage of real problems facing the state, lawmakers are instead spending time banning a type of voting that isn’t even used in West Virginia.
We deserve real solutions for our real problems, not distractions or attempts to further limit our choices at the ballot box.