New Hampshire primaries would be better with ranked choice voting
In Tuesday’s crowded New Hampshire primaries, 26% of the vote was enough to win.
That’s the share of the vote Russell Prescott needed to win the seven-candidate Republican primary in New Hampshire’s competitive 1st District. In the Republican primary in New Hampshire’s 2nd District, it took just 36% of the vote to win. In other primaries in the Granite State and Delaware, Democratic nominees for governor and lieutenant governor also took under 50% – in all cases, the majority voted for someone other than the candidate who won.
Ranked choice voting (RCV) would fix this problem. Candidates need to build a majority coalition – that’s nearly double Prescott’s support in New Hampshire’s 1st District. In addition to empowering voters, RCV would unify the party behind its strongest candidate going into competitive general elections like the one in the 1st District. In races that are “safe” for one party like the statewide Delaware contests, RCV would ensure that a fraction of a fraction of the electorate doesn’t pick the elected leader for everyone.
New Hampshire 1st District Republican Primary Results
| Candidate | Votes | Pct. |
| Russell Prescott | 16,935 | 26.3% |
| Hollie Noveletsky | 15,242 | 23.7% |
| Joseph Levasseur | 14,797 | 23.0% |
| Chris Bright | 8,539 | 13.3% |
| Walter McFarlane | 5,156 | 8.0% |
| Max Abramson | 2,219 | 3.5% |
| Andy Martin | 1,521 | 2.4% |
New Hampshire Republicans have lived this story before. In 2022, the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate and both of its U.S. House nominees won with under 40% of the vote – all lost decisively in the general election, despite the 1st District and Senate seat potentially being competitive. Recent research from Northwestern University shows that this is not limited to New Hampshire; plurality winners in primary elections perform worse in general elections than their majority-winning counterparts.
RCV encourages candidates to build a broad base of electoral support, giving them a stronger mandate and coalition going into the general election. It also encourages less mud-slinging and more civil campaigning, meaning that nominees are less likely to be damaged from a bruising primary.
Compare that to the Democratic primary in New Hampshire’s 2nd District this year, where negative ads took center stage in the “ugliest primary” of the cycle. This election was decided by a decisive majority, but the campaign’s negativity could prove a threat to future voter engagement.
Ultimately, ranked choice voting would directly benefit voters, candidates, and parties alike in both New Hampshire and Delaware. Our elections are better when candidates win with broad support – not just 26% of the vote.
Both New Hampshire and Delaware have local uses of RCV to look to. In Delaware, the village of Arden has been using it since 1941. In New Hampshire, the House Democratic Caucus has used RCV to pick its leader. Its neighbor, Maine, uses RCV statewide; cities in neighboring Vermont and Massachusetts do as well.
