West Virginia delegates voted to ban ranked choice voting, which isn’t happening in the state.
“Has this happened in West Virginia anywhere?” asked Delegate Kayla Young, D-Kanawha.
“Ranked choice voting, as I understand it, is not being used in West Virginia, but it is used in jurisdictions in different places in the U.S.,” responded House Judiciary Chairman J.B. Akers, R-Kanawha.
“So no?” replied Young. “It hasn’t happened in West Virginia?”
“It won’t happen if this bill passes for sure, but no, not yet that I know of,” Akers said.
Young then drew a conclusion: “Y’all this is a waste of time. We’re not helping people. We’re wasting time. I’ll be a no.”
A few days ago, the state Senate voted 31-2 with one absence to pass SB490, which says “No state, county, or local elections office may use ranked choice voting or instant runoff voting to conduct an election or nomination of any candidate in this state for any local government, statewide, or federal elective office.”
Now the House of Delegates has passed the bill, 87-9 with four absences.
The system uses voters’ rankings of candidates to choose the winner.
Typically, voters would rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate earns more than half of the initial votes, they are declared the winner.
But if no one wins a majority, an instant runoff would occur. The candidate with the least votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as their top choice would have their votes bumped to their next preference. That repeats until a somebody achieves a majority.
The West Virginia bill would void any decision by a county, municipality or local government to institute ranked choice option in the future.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, who is also chairman of the state Democratic Party, said the voting practice might have benefits for society.
“It promotes civility, something that has been lost for a long time. It promotes civility in politics because if you’re running against somebody and you think that y’all are pretty close there, you want their voters’ second choice,” said Pushkin, D-Kanawha.
“So you’re not going to attack them because you want their folks to give you their second choice. It works fairly well.”
Delegate Larry Kump, R-Berkeley, described the voting system as confusing.
“Ranked choice voting is a Rube Goldberg political scheme. It’s a kerfuffle, which would not bless West Virginia real good,” he said, first using a reference to complicated machines that perform simple tasks in inefficient ways and then employing colloquial language.
“Simply put, ranked choice voting will confuse voters in West Virginia and undermine voter confidence in election integrity.”
Akers concluded with statements in support of the bill, saying it is purposeful.
“In response to statement that this bill does nothing is a waste of time, we often pass legislation in this body proactively. If we see a problem somewhere else, we try to address it before it’s in West Virginia.”
He continued, “This is not being used in West Virginia, but it could be if this bill doesn’t pass. It is being used in other places.”