Ohio House votes to ban ranked choice voting statewide
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Ohio House lawmakers have voted to ban ranked choice voting statewide before any city has implemented it.
Why it matters: "Home Rule" — the self-government authority granted to local municipalities by the Ohio constitution — has once again been flouted with preemptive legislation.
The big picture: Ranked choice voting is an electoral method that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference instead of making a single selection. Votes are redistributed in successive rounds of tabulation until a candidate wins a majority.
- Supporters say it elevates candidates with broad support, diminishes the success of extreme candidates and curtails divisive and negative campaigns. It also could eliminate the need for costly primaries.
- Opponents say it's confusing for voters and logistically challenging to administer.
Driving the news: Senate Bill 63 passed the Ohio House, 65-27, with mainly Republicans in favor, and now heads back to the Senate.
- It bars ranked choice voting statewide and threatens to strip municipalities of state revenue from the Local Government Fund if they attempt to adopt it.
Zoom in: Two Cleveland suburbs, Cleveland Heights and Lakewood, were the only two Ohio municipalities actively exploring ranked choice voting.
- Both cities were considering whether to put the question before voters.
What they're saying: "The citizens of Lakewood's Charter Review commission asked council to give voters the chance to choose Rank Choice Voting for our municipal elections," Lakewood City Council President Sarah Kepple tells Axios.
- "Some of my colleagues and I introduced an amendment to do so, because we actually try to listen to our constituents here, an approach that I wish they would try at the Statehouse."
The other side: In testimony before an Ohio Senate committee, Cuyahoga County Board of Elections director Anthony Perlatti expressed "serious concerns" about administering a ranked choice voting election.
- "I do not know how election boards could report results for both rank choice and non-rank choice contests with current equipment or the time constraints of the Secretary of State's Office," he said.
The only lawmaker to speak in opposition to the legislation was Rep. Ashley Bryant Bailey (D-Cincinnati), the Ohio Capital Journal reports.
- She said ranked choice voting used in Cincinnati from 1925 to 1957 helped boost minority representation on the city council.
- "This system reduced the domination of a single political machine and made council representation more proportional," she said.
Zoom out: Though Ohio's constitution grants municipalities home rule authority, the General Assembly has repeatedly overridden local decisions in recent years — from plastic bag bans to traffic cameras and the minimum wage.