Congress is broken. Retiring members say ranked choice voting is part of the fix.

A host of big names in Congress are retiring in 2024. Several of them – like Republican Senator Mitt Romney and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin – have something in common: They support ranked choice voting (RCV) and believe it could make Congress more functional. 

Most Americans agree that Congress isn’t doing its job. Many members of Congress share that frustration, and are even leaving office because of it. When Senator Joe Manchin (WV) announced he would not be seeking re-election, he said: 

Every incentive in Washington is designed to make our politics extreme. The growing divide between Democrats and Republicans is paralyzing Congress and worsening our nation’s problems. The majority of Americans are just plain worn out.

Manchin is not alone in this sentiment. Senator Mitt Romney (UT) announced his plans to retire a few months prior, stating: “Political motivations too often impede the solutions that [policy] challenges demand.” 

The “incentives” and “motivations” discussed by Manchin and Romney are largely electoral. Elections are how legislators get and keep their jobs. However, gerrymandering and vote-splitting mean that legislators end up being mostly accountable to small fractions of voters. 

Manchin and Romney represent different sides of the aisle, but agree on one step toward achieving better governance: ranked choice voting. RCV, now used in 50 U.S. jurisdictions, allows voters to rank the candidates to produce a majority-preferred outcome. This rewards candidates who broaden their appeal and find common ground. 

According to Manchin, RCV has elected “all these people who are just looking for the better… for our country.” According to Romney, “process does make a difference here… at this stage the evidence suggests [RCV] would be a superior way to proceed.” 

While some states have adopted RCV on their own, a national solution – the Fair Representation Act (FRA), which was  re-introduced in March – would implement RCV for all congressional elections. Moreover, the FRA would institute multi-member districts for Congress, solving another problem Romney identified:

We’ve got to find a way to nominate people from the two parties that are more representative of the country at large. And what happens is people don’t vote in primaries, so we select nominees with about 10 percent of the voters in a party voting for them.

According to U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer (WA-6), who is also retiring, “I think it makes sense to have multi-member districts and ranked choice voting. I think you would have a Congress that is more reflective.” Another soon-to-be retiree, U.S. Representative Earl Blumeanauer, has cosponsored the FRA. 

U.S. Representative Ken Buck (CO-4), who resigned earlier this year, has also expressed support for election reform: “I think we need to change our electoral laws here and I have a passion for that… I’m going to start working on that issue. We have to have better candidates – up and down the ballot.” Retiring U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (WI-8) supports an RCV bill in his state, saying it “creates greater accountability to voters and rewards finding common ground.” 

Perhaps the anticipation of retirement has emboldened these legislators to speak on this issue. In theory, a sitting legislator may be hesitant to adjust the system under which they were elected. However, reforms like RCV are seeing increased support from elected officials remaining in office as well. 

The FRA has six other cosponsors that are seeking re-election. The Voter Choice Act, which provides federal matching grants for local and state governments choosing to adopt RCV, was just reintroduced in the U.S. House on Friday. More and more legislative bodies are referring RCV ballot measures to voters. 

RCV has been a voter-driven reform for years. However, the slew of recent support from legislators shows that RCV is a win-win policy. Legislators can do what they came to Congress to do, and voters can hold them accountable for it.

As FairVote CEO Meredith Sumpter recently said, RCV gives “officials the space to lead, to legislate, and to govern.”