Ranked Choice Voting Disenfranchises Voters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Ranked Choice Voting Disenfranchises Voters

PHOENIX, ARIZONA—In response to the astroturf attempt to force Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) on Arizona and states across the country, Senator Justine Wadsack, a member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, has released the following statement:

The problems with Ranked Choice Voting are numerous and well-documented, the least of which is the erosion of the one-citizen, one-vote principle which has long guided American elections. In jurisdictions where it has been tried, RCV has caused the exact outcomes which election integrity legislators have sought to eliminate, such as disenfranchisement, voter confusion, delayed results, and the unnecessary complication of our elections process.

“Ranked Choice Voting disenfranchises voters through its unnecessary complexity and ‘exhausted ballots’ scheme, which results in the silencing of significant portions of the electorate,” said Arizona Freedom Caucus Member Senator Justine Wadsack. “Exhausted ballots are those that do not rank any continuing candidate, contain an overvote at the highest continuing ranking, or contain two or more sequential skipped rankings before its highest continuing ranking.”

The Arizona Freedom Caucus formally supports the passage of HB 2552 and SB 1265.

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For more information, contact:

Kim Quintero

Director of Communications | Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus

kquintero@azleg.gov