Recently, Rolling Stone and investigative watchdog group Documented published an extensive report revealing a well-funded and coordinated campaign to attack ranked choice voting (RCV). 

The report reveals that billionaire Leonard Leo, former Donald Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell, and a constellation of organizations who have worked to restrict voting access across the country have made stopping RCV a top priority. 

Individuals interviewed over the course of the investigation found the opposition to RCV “bizarre,” but not surprising: 

[This effort] is a bit bizarre . . . It’s not really an issue of ‘honest elections’ or ‘election integrity. It’s a debate about the best way to translate voters’ preferences into election winners.

– Rick Hasen, professor and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law

[Ranked choice voting] turned around a near-death experience for the Republican Party in Virginia . . . [For Republicans,] the successes of RCV in Virginia should be obvious.

– Chris Saxman, former Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates

Ranked choice voting is a completely neutral, process-based reform that favors neither party. RCV also just gives voters more choice – basic common sense that makes our democracy better for all voters.

– Kevin Hancock, Strategic Litigation Director at the Campaign Legal Center

Hancock is absolutely right. Single-choice elections too frequently produce winning candidates who only seek the support of a vocal political minority and win despite the majority of voters casting their ballot for someone else. 

RCV is all about giving voters more choice at the ballot box and more voice in their government. RCV ensures that candidates and politicians win – and represent – a broad coalition of voters.

You can read the full report from Rolling Stone and Documented here.