Latest news with #FairVote
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What ranked choice voting is, and why some Ohio lawmakers are trying to ban it
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Lawmakers in Ohio are working to ban local governments within the state from using ranked choice voting. Senate Bill 63 would prohibit any elections in Ohio from being conducted by ranked choice voting. Any local government found to be using ranked choice voting would have its state money withheld. The ban on ranked choice voting would also apply to party primary elections. Investigation alleges Kroger overcharges customers on items advertised as on sale Lawmakers in the Ohio Senate voted 27-5 on Wednesday to pass the bill, which would largely ban the use of ranked choice voting in the state. Ranked choice voting is a method where voters rank the candidates on their ballots in order of preference. If no candidate reaches a majority of votes, the last-place candidate is defeated, and those who had the defeated candidate as their first choice would then have their second-highest choice elevated in the next round of voting. This process generally repeats until one candidate has received a majority of votes, or until the same number of candidates are remaining as there are available seats. Ranked choice voting is sometimes referred to as 'instant runoff voting,' which avoids making voters return to the polls to cast another ballot in races where the leading candidate only has a plurality of the vote, rather than the majority. Ranked choice voting is used statewide in Maine and Alaska, plus in dozens of other cities across the country, according to FairVote, a nonprofit that works to 'research and advance voting reforms that make democracy more functional and representative for every American.' No cities in Ohio currently use ranked choice voting. Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) and Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) introduced the bipartisan bill in January. 'Ranked choice voting distorts election outcomes, which inherently leads to uncertainty in our results,' Gavarone said in a statement when the bill was introduced. 'If this idea came to Ohio, it could, as it has in other states, delay election results, decrease voter turnout, and create confusion among voters, diluting their voices at the ballot box.' According to FairVote, New York City's first election with ranked choice voting had the city's highest turnout in 30 years, but the full impact ranked choice has on voter turnout is still unknown. The organization said it's hard to compare elections when studying the effect ranked choice voting has on turnout since primary and runoff elections generally have lower turnout anyway, plus there are other factors such as competitive campaigns and media attention that are at play. Cities in Ohio with the most UFO sightings Ohio's ranked choice voting ban would not apply to municipalities or chartered counties in accordance with a 1923 Ohio Supreme Court ruling. Gavarone said that ranked choice voting would 'undo two centuries of voters having the ability to cast their vote with one vote and one voice, and alter our elections to look similar to the way it's done in New York City and San Francisco.' DeMora called ranked choice voting 'cumbersome, confusing, and unnecessary.' Rank the Vote Ohio, an organization that is pushing for ranked choice voting in the state, said ranked choice voting expands voter choice, ensures the winning candidate has a majority of support, and promotes more diverse candidates. 'In our current system, many candidates are pressured to drop out, shamed as 'spoilers,' and excluded from public debates,' the organization said. 'Ranked Choice Voting welcomes all candidates into the race — and you can't win if you don't run.' The bill must now pass the House before it goes to Gov. Mike DeWine's desk. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBC
29-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
'The west really doesn't count': Election called just as B.C. polls closed — again
Once again, a federal election call was made well before western votes had a chance to be considered, leaving some voters feeling disenfranchised, as if their votes don't matter. On Monday night, at about 7:15 p.m. PT, media outlets, including CBC News, projected the Liberals would form the next government. That was 15 minutes after polls had closed in B.C., and not long after they closed in Alberta. The election call was made knowing only the early results of the more Eastern provinces. This is not unusual for British Columbians — it's certainly happened before — but for some, it is frustrating. Two hundred of the country's ridings are in Ontario and Quebec, because that's where a high percentage of the Canadian population lives. Another 32 are situated in Atlantic Canada, so it's really no wonder federal elections are called before western provinces are counted. But those early election declarations still hurt, said Sherry Boschman of Fort St. James, located about 113 kilometres northwest of Prince George. "It just disappoints me." Boschman has voted in B.C. for decades and said she's grown used to this and worries that other western voters are feeling left behind; she said her relatives in Saskatchewan feel the same way. "It seems to me like the West really doesn't count." Proportional representation Electoral reform, something Boschman has tried to push for, could be a possible solution to the B.C.-doesn't-count conundrum, she said. Sharon Sommerville, a spokesperson for the national campaign for electoral reform, Fair Vote, said the problem comes from the fact that election winners are determined by the number of seats a party wins, not by the overall number of votes it receives. If Canada were to consider proportional representation as opposed to the first-past-the-post electoral system we have now, the percentage of seats a party has in the legislature would reflect the percentage of people who voted for that party. "If we were to count votes, and parties would get the seats they deserved based on the votes they received, it would mean all the ridings would be in play across the country," Sommerville said. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau had promised to move ahead with electoral reform in 2015, but abandoned the idea two years later. After Trudeau announced he would be stepping down as prime minister, he said that was his biggest regret from his time in office. Polling times Changing the times polls are open to be aligned nationwide would allow votes to be counted at the same time, rather than starting with the east and having the election decided before the west even starts counting. In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for Elections Canada said legislation around elections, such as staggered voting hours across the country, is up to Parliament. "Just anecdotally, having worked during elections under the previous system, the current approach 'levels' the flow of results to a very large degree," they said. They said the chief electoral officer will put together a report on the election and will answer questions before Parliament. 'Our votes do count' Political scientist Stewart Prest agreed that, in some ways, getting the results of the election so quickly in the West is irksome, but he hopes British Columbians don't feel their votes don't matter. For example, he said, once the Liberals were projected winners, B.C. could be the deciding factor as to whether it became a minority or majority government. "The full election is the expression of the country as a whole, and B.C. is an important part of that," he said. "But it would take a very specific confluence of circumstances for us actually to tip the scales at one moment or another, even though our votes do count."
