Ranked-choice voting — in which voters cast their ballots not for a single candidate, but rank them in order of preference — is a better way of assuring that election results reflect what the public really wants. That is especially true when there is a large field to choose from, because it makes it less likely that a fringe actor will win.
More places are using it. It worked in New York, where Eric Adams emerged from the crowded 2021 Democratic mayoral primary as the most broadly acceptable candidate. It worked in Alaska, where former governor Sarah Palin lost a House seat last year to Rep. Mary Peltola (D), a candidate who had wider appeal across the state.
It can work in Montgomery County, too — that is, if state legislators in Annapolis finally allow the county to adopt the voting method.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary in the liberal enclave is almost guaranteed to win the general election, encouraging many candidates to seek the nomination. The primary vote is liable to split many ways, allowing a candidate with narrow support to grab the nomination and, therefore, the office. A subset of a subset of the electorate gets to make the choice. In 2018, County Executive Marc Elrich won the nomination for his job with 29 percent of the Democratic primary vote, edging rival David Blair by 77 votes. In 2022, Mr. Elrich won the Democratic primary with 39 percent of the vote, up only 32 votes over Mr. Blair. If ranked-choice voting had been in place, residents could have been reassured that the winner had broad support in the county.
Instead of voting for only one candidate, voters rank the candidates — first, second, third, etc. If no one wins more than 50 percent of the first-choice vote, the lowest-scoring candidate’s votes are distributed to those voters’ second choice. Then the same with the next lowest-scoring candidate, until someone secures a majority of votes. Not only does this reduce the chance that a fringe candidate might succeed, it encourages voters to listen to the full field of candidates — and candidates to campaign with more positive messages, lest they alienate another candidate’s supporters.
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End of carousel- D.C. Council reverses itself on school resource officers. Good.
- Virginia makes a mistake by pulling out of an election fraud detection group.
- Vietnam sentences another democracy activist.
- Biden has a new border plan.
The D.C. Council voted on Tuesday to stop pulling police officers out of schools, a big win for student safety. Parents and principals overwhelmingly support keeping school resource officers around because they help de-escalate violent situations. D.C. joins a growing number of jurisdictions, from Montgomery County, Md., to Denver, in reversing course after withdrawing officers from school grounds following George Floyd’s murder. Read our recent editorial on why D.C. needs SROs.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) just withdrew Virginia from a data-sharing consortium, ERIC, that made the commonwealth’s elections more secure, following Republicans in seven other states in falling prey to disinformation peddled by election deniers. Former GOP governor Robert F. McDonnell made Virginia a founding member of ERIC in 2012, and until recently conservatives touted the group as a tool to combat voter fraud. D.C. and Maryland plan to remain. Read our recent editorial on ERIC.
In Vietnam, a one-party state, democracy activist Tran Van Bang was sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison and three years probation for writing 39 Facebook posts. The court claimed he had defamed the state in his writings, according to Radio Free Asia. In the past six years, at least 60 bloggers and activists have been sentenced to between 4 and 15 years in prison under the law, Human Rights Watch found. Read more of the Editorial Board’s coverage on autocracy and Vietnam.
The Department of Homeland Security has provided details of a plan to prevent a migrant surge along the southern border. The administration would presumptively deny asylum to migrants who failed to seek it in a third country en route — unless they face “an extreme and imminent threat” of rape, kidnapping, torture or murder. Critics allege that this is akin to an illegal Trump-era policy. In fact, President Biden is acting lawfully in response to what was fast becoming an unmanageable flow at the border. Read our most recent editorial on the U.S. asylum system.
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Arlington County is trying ranked-choice voting in June in primary races for county board seats. Montgomery County officials have tried for years to institute ranked-choice voting for local candidates. But the county needs Annapolis’s permission to proceed. This year, it should finally get the go-ahead. The House of Delegates’ Ways and Means Committee held a hearing last month on a bill that would give Montgomery the needed permission. The state legislature should make this a priority.
Other places should adopt ranked-choice voting, too. Nevadans voted last year to institute the voting method in 2026. It will take persuasion to spread further. Some Republicans oppose ranked-choice voting because they fear it will hurt their candidates’ chances. This amounts to an admission that they believe their candidates are less broadly acceptable to voters. It’s also an assertion without evidence. Republicans in the United States and conservatives around the world have prospered in ranked-choice voting systems, the Cato Institute’s Walter Olson points out.
U.S. elections — for the lowest office to the highest — can be better. Ranked-choice voting is one way to start.