Voters in several states, including Missouri, last week delivered a stinging rebuke to ranked-choice voting, clouding the future of an idea that had seen strong momentum in recent years.
Ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank political candidates by preference, is used statewide in Alaska and Maine and in major U.S. localities such as New York City and San Francisco.
But voters in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon rejected ballot measures that would have adopted ranked-choice voting for packed races.
In Missouri, voters approved a ballot measure banning the approach statewide and locally, except for a grandfather clause for St. Louis municipal elections. The ranked-choice voting ban , which appeared on the ballot as Amendment 7, was paired with a deceptive provision seeking to outlaw noncitizen voting — which was already illegal in Missouri.
Results are still too close to call on a measure to scrap Alaska’s existing use of ranked-choice voting. With 94% of results reported, the measure was up by about 2,400 votes.