New Hampshire primary needs RCV to prevent 5,500 wasted votes

Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie have all dropped out of the presidential race. But their names still appeared on New Hampshire ballots yesterday. 

Approximately 5,500 voters in the state’s Republican presidential primary cast ballots for them and other withdrawn candidates, meaning over 1.5% of votes made no difference in the outcome. This group likely includes some same-day voters, as well as absentee voters who may have mailed in a vote for a candidate when they were still in the race – only for that candidate to drop out before primary day. Notably, Ron DeSantis withdrew just two days before the New Hampshire primary. 

Ranked choice voting (RCV) is an easy way to solve the “wasted votes” problem. Wasted, or “zombie,” votes are especially common in presidential primaries, because candidates frequently drop out before most states have held elections, but after ballots have been printed. Notably, the ballot for the South Carolina Republican primary in late February will include several withdrawn candidates. 

Ranked choice voting prevents wasted votes because, if a voter’s 1st-choice candidate drops out, their vote simply counts for their highest-ranked choice still in the race. In 2016, approximately 700,000 Republican primary voters cast wasted votes; in 2020, three million Democratic primary voters did so. RCV would give Democrats and Republicans alike a greater voice in the nomination process, and prevent “zombie votes” in volatile fields of candidates. 

Thankfully, some states and territories are scheduled to use RCV in the 2024 presidential primaries. They include the U.S. Virgin Islands, which will hold its Republican caucus on February 8 – third in the presidential primary schedule after Iowa and New Hampshire. 

RCV has many benefits, from addressing the “spoiler problem” to supporting majority winners in crowded fields. But this is one of the simplest and most important cases – in presidential primaries, RCV can ensure thousands (or in the case of 2020, millions) more voters have their voices heard.