By AlaskaWatchman.com

While the effort to ban ranked-choice voting narrowly failed in Alaska last year, the national battle to outlaw the controversial and confusing voting system is gaining momentum.

Earlier this month, Wyoming and West Virginia became the latest two states to ban the practice, raising the total number of states prohibiting ranked choice voting to 13.

To date, Alaska and Maine are the only states that utilize RCV for statewide elections.

Alaskans nearly rescinded the practice in November, but fell just short 49.8% to 50.1%. Another repeal effort, however, is underway for the 2026 general election. Sponsors are now in the process of gathering 34,099 signatures of registered voters to place the measure on the 2026 ballot.

The push to outlaw RCV started in Florida and Tennessee in 2022. Since then, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Missouri have followed suit.

Last year, six states – Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Oregon – all rejected ballot efforts to implement the system.

Click here to support the Alaska Watchman.

More states ban ranked-choice voting – raising total to 13

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


10 Comments

  • Neil DeWitt says:

    So why can’t Alaska get a clue from this and get rid of RCV here?

  • Patti McNally says:

    Why is it that only hard-core right wingers are against RCV? Because it takes their power away and gives it to the 80% of voters who are moderate?

    • Lobo says:

      Hey, Patti.. Put the joint down, and educate yourself as to how “RCV” is a process designed to ‘take the power” from the so called 80% of the voters. When I cast a vote for a candidate, I do not want my vote to be “given” to a candidate that I did not vote for to begin with.. Only a “hard-core” left winger” approves of this corrupt crap.

      • Brian Shank says:

        Your statement is a bit self-contradictory, because anyone who does not rank as many candidates as they can is taking away their own power. No one votes “for” a candidate with RCV because it is a preference system that allows voters to communicate their relative preference of all candidates regardless of whether they are “for” or “against” any of them. This ordinal system is better than forcing voters to put a check mark next to the name of only one candidate. Also, the belief that RCV was “designed” to take power away from anyone is irrational. It’s designed to reduce the chance of the spoiler scenario.

    • Elizabeth Henry says:

      Why is it only hard core Marxist embracing left wingers snuck it in and then spent millions of dollars of, out of state and even out of country, money, to keep it?

    • Sir Comrade says:

      miss patti, are you on Arbella’s payroll, or just ignorant and parroting for free? Outsider, destroy America Marxist money funded this whole machination called RCV. Of course Lisa is part of them.

    • Dee Cee says:

      What an asinine thing to say. Oregon banned it. OREGON. It’s the ignorant lefties in Alaska who can’t see the forest for the trees.

    • John says:

      Only hard-core right wingers huh? The vote count was 49. 8% to 50.1%.
      Would you say that you possess the IQ of the Avg left-winger? Have a family member or trusted friend explain.

  • Pat says:

    Where do you go to sign the petition

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *