New polling shows voters are ready for RCV in presidential primary elections
New poll results find that 61% of American voters want to rank candidates in presidential primary elections, compared to just 28% who are not interested in ranking presidential candidates. The survey was a national poll of 1,001 registered voters in April 2023.
Ranked choice voting (RCV) solves problems in presidential primaries. If a voter’s first choice drops out, their ballot counts for their next choice. Presidential primary elections also tend to have crowded fields, like the 17 Republican contenders from 2016 and the 29 Democratic contenders in 2020. Ranked choice voting is a better way for voters to unite behind strong nominees in such crowded races.
As we approach the 2024 presidential campaign cycle, FairVote partnered with Citizen Data to gauge whether voters are ready for RCV in presidential primaries. By more than a two-to-one margin, voters are interested! Ranking in presidential primaries has majority support from every demographic group included in the survey, with the highest support from younger voters and Black and Asian American voters. Over 60% of both Republicans and Democrats are interested in ranking candidates in presidential primaries.
Six Republicans have already launched their campaigns for 2024, with at least a dozen other contenders who may choose to run. Based on lessons learned from 2016 and 2020, we can expect a chaotic primary season with fractured fields, mudslinging, and candidate withdrawals that lead to “wasted votes” from early voters who already cast their ballots.
Voters must become strategists at the ballot box, asking themselves how to maximize their vote: Should they vote for their honest favorite, or vote for one of the frontrunners who has a chance to defeat their least favorite candidate? News outlets have already begun classifying candidates in terms of their viability, a not-so-subtle reminder to voters that some candidates would be a better strategic choice than others.
The declared Republican candidates already represent different factions of the party. Voters would be better off if they could rank their top choices instead of having to gamble with their single vote.
Five state Democratic parties used RCV ballots for their 2020 presidential primaries. They found that voters overwhelmingly took advantage of the option to rank candidates on the ballot, made very few errors, and turned out in large numbers. In a year when over three million early voters in states without RCV cast ballots for presidential candidates who then withdrew by their state’s primary day, RCV made more votes count.
Poll methodology:
Citizen Data sampled 1,001 registered voters during April 2023 as a part of its monthly omnibus survey. The margin of error is +/- 3.1%. Results are weighted on party ID, education, race, age, and gender.
The exact question on ranked choice voting was, “In 2020, 29 Democrats ran for president. In 2016, 17 Republicans ran for President. In a contest like this, would you be interested in being able to rank your top five candidates?”
