Frequently Asked Questions

YES! The Constitution does not dictate processes for running elections, but instead wisely leaves that decision up to the states, rather than centralizing control in a national authority. Our Founders knew that the methods we use would be adapted and improved over time. By allowing state Republican parties to decide for themselves whether to try preferential primaries, we uphold the Founders’ vision of decentralized power and innovation.

Preferential voting has been repeatedly upheld by conservative judges in state and federal courts, including by the Alaska Supreme Court and a Trump-appointed federal judge in Maine.

YES! Every vote counts equally in a preferential voting election, and every person’s vote only counts for one candidate at a time.

Courts have repeatedly rejected arguments that “preferential” or “ranked choice voting” violates the “one person, one vote principle.”

YES! Preferential voting can be used in primaries regardless of whether they are run by the party or by the state government. For example, Maine is planning to use RCV in its government-run presidential primaries in 2024.

YES! Everywhere it’s used, voters like and understand preferential voting.

• 85% of Alaska voters reported that ranked choice voting was “simple” in their first RCV election.
• 81% of Utah voters said ranked choice voting was easy in their first RCV election.
• In 2022, a majority of Virginia primary voters who used ranked choice voting in congressional primaries reported that they prefer RCV to plurality elections.

No. Preferential voting is about giving voters more freedom to cast their vote how they wish. Voters are never forced to rank any candidate, just like they’re not forced to participate in a runoff election.

No. In fact, party primaries are one of the best use cases for preferential voting. In primary elections, ranked choice voting sets party nominees up for success by sending them to general elections with a clear mandate from their party’s voters.

Alaska’s new election system – which replaced party primaries with an open “jungle” primary – is not what we’re proposing. Supporting preferential voting in party primaries doesn’t mean you have to support the Alaska model for elections.

No. RCV, or preferential voting, elections can be tabulated instantly and transparently with modern technology. The majority of places that use preferential voting – including Utah cities and Minneapolis – release results the night of or day after the election.

Where results have been slower, it has been a choice by election administrators to allow time for absentee ballots to come in, which has nothing to do with RCV or the way the votes are counted.

YES! The process for counting ranked choice ballots is extremely transparent. Most jurisdictions release cast vote records (CVRs), a digital representation of all ballots cast – which offer more transparency than records released in most non-RCV elections, and allow outside parties to confirm the results.

When desired, RCV results can be counted or verified through a hand count. The Virginia GOP used paper ballots for RCV contests in 2020, 2021, and 2022.