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By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
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Pushback to ranked choice voting has emerged during this year's midterm elections, drawing attention to a system that some states have banned.
Criticism of the ranked choice voting system has recently emerged amid a highly competitive U.S. Senate race in Alaska, where Democratic former Representative Mary Peltola is vying to unseat Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan. The race has drawn national attention over GOP allegations that Democratic operatives helped recruit another candidate, named Dan J. Sullivan, to run alongside the incumbent in an effort to confuse voters. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued Alaska over Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy.
Alaska is one of three states using ranked choice voting. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have expressed dissatisfaction with the voting system amid the Alaska investigation.
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What Is Ranked Choice Voting?
As opposed to traditional voting, in which voters select one candidate in an election, in a ranked choice system, voters rate all candidates on the ballot from their first to last choice. Voters do not have to rank every candidate on the ballot.
If one candidate does not receive the majority of the vote, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated. The ballots that ranked the losing candidate first would have their second choices split among the remaining candidates. The process repeats until someone reaches a majority.
For example, if Peltola won 45 percent of the vote, Sullivan 40 percent and the two other candidates on the ballot 10 and 5 percent, respectively, no one candidate has more than 50 percent, or a majority. The lowest-ranked candidate would be eliminated. The ballots that ranked that candidate first would then have their second choices go to the remaining candidates, and so on until Peltola or Sullivan pass the 50 percent threshold.
Dan J. Sullivan has switched from Republican to "undeclared" amid the controversy.
States That Have Banned Ranked Choice Voting?
A map created by Newsweek shows which states use ranked choice voting, which states have banned it, and where it is allowed only in certain local elections.
Alaska, Maine and Hawaii use the system. In Alaska, there are four candidates on the ballot: Peltola, Dan Sullivan the incumbent, Dan J. Sullivan and Gerald Heikes. In Maine, a sample ballot shows there are only two Senate candidates—incumbent Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson. Hawaii uses ranked choice for some statewide elections.
Far more states have banned the system: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Other states allow ranked choice voting in some localities or certain elections: California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
Other states have no laws about the voting system.
What Trump, Vance Have Said About Ranked Choice Voting
This week, Vance told reporters that he's "not a big fan" of ranked choice voting.
"I've heard the pushback to ranked choice voting. I don't understand it. It seems to me that you have an election, the person who wins the most votes should win," he said. "That seems to be not what happens with ranked choice voting. The fact that it's so confusing to a person who pays pretty close attention to politics I think suggests we should do our elections in, like, the normal way, which is if you vote for a person and they get more votes than the other person, they should win."
Trump has also vehemently opposed the system. He called it a “TOTAL DEMOCRAT SCAM meant to confuse the Voter" on Truth Social and has also called for Peltola and Dan J. Sullivan to be removed from Alaska's ballot.
What Happens Next
Ranked choice is likely to remain a topic of discussion through and after Election Day, November 3.
Three cities are also set to vote on whether to allow ranked choice voting for local elections: Honolulu, Hawaii; Irvine, California, and Longmont, Colorado.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Anna Skinner and Dave Siminoff.
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