Ranked-choice voting ballot measures largely fail across the country

Ranked-choice voting (RCV) has largely been defeated in ballot measures across the country.

There were ballot measures in nine states and Washington, D.C., most of which aimed to implement the election system.

RCV is an election process whereby if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, then a runoff system is triggered. When voters cast their ballots, they rank each candidate in order of first-to-last.

If one candidate doesn't reach the 50% plus-one vote threshold, then the candidate with the least amount of first-choice votes is eliminated, then second-choice votes from those who voted for the last-place finisher are reallocated among the remaining candidates and tallied – in a process that continues until a candidate receives the majority of the vote.  

Missouri is the only state that had a ballot measure to prohibit RCV. The measure also included a requirement that only U.S. citizens vote in the state's elections. The ballot measure was passed, according to NBC News. Missouri is the 11th state to ban RCV.

Alaska is one of two states that has RCV statewide and is the only state with a ballot measure to repeal the election system. The results of the ballot measure are close, but it may pass, if the final vote tabulation follows the trend of "yes" votes leading the "no" votes.

Out of the ballot measures to implement RCV statewide and in the nation's capital, the only one that has passed is Washington, D.C.'s.

Ballot measures to implement RCV were defeated in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and South Dakota. In both Colorado and Montana, the RCV ballot measures have more votes against them than for them, but the outcomes have not yet been called.

Jason Snead, the Honest Elections Project Action executive director, said in a statement Wednesday that RCV was rejected across the country.

"Alaska repealed ranked-choice voting after using it just one time," Snead said. "Voters across the country overwhelmingly defeated ranked-choice voting ballot measures and in Missouri, they voted decisively to ban it once and for all. Liberal billionaires thought they could buy a new form of democracy that would cater to them, but the American people said no."