New Illinois law creates a task force to examine ranked choice voting

Illinoisans may some day take part in a new way of voting for their elected officials, but not everyone is on board with the idea.

A new Illinois law will create a task force to explore options of ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting allows voters to select their candidates in order from their top choice to their bottom. On Election Day, if a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes, that person wins the election outright. If no candidate gets the majority of the vote, rankings would be used to determine the winner.

Andrew Szilva, executive director of FairVote Illinois, said ranked choice voting would change the way candidates campaign.

“The candidates realize that if they attack their opponent, they might be alienating those voters who really like that candidate as number one," Szilva told The Center Square. “Candidates focus more on the issues rather than on personalities and attacking.”

Szilva said with ranked choice voting, few votes are wasted because if a person’s top candidate doesn’t win, the vote goes to their second choice.

According to FairVote Illinois, in 2020, 70,000 Democratic votes were wasted in the presidential primary. Likewise, 30,000 Republican votes were wasted in Illinois’ 2016 presidential primary.

Opponents of ranked choice voting say it is confusing for voters, while others say voters are usually on opposite sides of the aisle, so it would make it more difficult for candidates in the middle to get elected.

During debate of the legislation, state Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, said the concept of ranked choice voting raises some red flags.

“When I read of examples where a voter may elevate a particular candidate to their number one position, and that ends up having a detrimental effect on their candidate of preference, that is concerning to me,” Spain said.

The Ranked Choice and Voting Systems Task Force will begin convening to analyze the state’s capacity for implementation of the practice and will release a report in March 2024.