Missouri House gives initial approval to bill seeking to block ranked-choice voting
The Missouri House gave initial approval Tuesday to a resolution that would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment forbidding ranked-choice voting.
Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, sponsor of House Joint Resolution 66, said his bill would enshrine Missouri’s current voting system in the state Constitution to resist movement toward adopting ranked-choice voting.
Baker said ranked-choice voting is too complex and drags out tabulating election results. He argued that supporters of ranked-choice voting like it because it allows unpopular candidates to win elections that they couldn’t otherwise.
“Missourians don’t want more voter confusion and exhaustion when they go to the ballot box,” Baker said. “They don’t want slow results and increased irregularities. They don’t want to show up at the polls only to have their votes thrown out.”
Under ranked-choice voting, a candidate can only win the election if they receive a majority of the vote. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated and their ballots are allocated to the candidate marked as a voter’s second choice. This process repeats until one candidate has a majority. A ballot is not thrown out unless all of the candidates a voter marked have been eliminated from the race.
https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-house-gives-initial-approval-to-bill-seeking-to-block-ranked-choice-voting/
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