Small: No need to "fix" Oklahoma elections with "ranked choice" voting

No need to “fix” Oklahoma elections

By Jonathan Small

Oklahoma has one of the nation’s best election systems. We use paper ballots that allow hand recounts, our ballot machines are not Internet connected, and results are completely tallied on Election Day.

Yet some people want to get rid of that system and replace it with one notorious for voter errors, lengthy delays in counting, and growing public distrust of results – “ranked choice” voting.

In a ranked-choice voting system, voters designate their first choice in a race, their second choice, and so on down the ballot. If no candidate receives majority support, the second-choice votes of the candidate who finishes last are reallocated to the remaining candidates. If no candidate clears 50 percent of the vote at that time, the process repeats again and again until one candidate has received a majority.

This idea has been tried elsewhere and the results speak for themselves. The system is a disaster.

Campaign Finance and Election Threats task force releases recommendations for reform

Governor Stitt Announces Recommendations from Task Force on Campaign Finance and Election Threats

OKLAHOMA CITY (April 3, 2024) - Today, Governor Stitt announced the recommendations from his Task Force on Campaign Finance and Election Threats. The Task Force studied Oklahoma's ethics regulations and election administration, gathering data, reviewing case law, and conducting interviews to determine what changes are necessary to ensure the state's elections are secure.

OCPA praises effort to ban ranked-choice voting

OCPA praises effort to ban ranked-choice voting

OKLAHOMA CITY (January 19, 2024)—Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small today praised lawmakers for seeking to ban ranked-choice voting in Oklahoma, noting that ranked-choice voting undermines public confidence in election outcomes and reduces transparency.

“Everywhere that ranked-choice voting has been tried, it has caused enormous problems,” Small said. “With ranked-choice voting, hand recounts become impossible, election results may not be known for weeks, and ballots become increasingly lengthy and confusing. Oklahoma already has one of the best, and most transparent, election systems in the nation. We don’t need to ‘fix’ our system, especially not with a half-baked idea like ranked-choice voting.”

Small: Ranked-choice voting a bad idea

Ranked-choice voting a bad idea

By Jonathan Small

Oklahoma is one of only a relative handful of states that conduct runoff elections. Because those runoff elections cost taxpayer money – typically hundreds of thousands – and draw lower turnout, some officials argue we should abandon runoff elections and instead adopt “ranked choice” voting.

But a recent legislative study highlighted why that is a bad idea. Whatever savings might be achieved would be more than offset by widespread voter confusion, reduced transparency and effective disenfranchisement of many citizens.