Petition aims to place ranked choice voting question on 2024 Missouri ballot

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KFVS) - Among dozens of petitions circulating for 2024 statewide ballot initiatives, one would see the state and local elections in Missouri adopt a model known as ranked choice voting.

Also referred to as “instant runoff voting,” RCV would eliminate primary elections, forcing all the candidates to run against each other. Then, it would allow voters to select second, third, fourth and subsequent choices on their ballots, tabulating the winner that received the most overall support.

The system guarantees that the person who wins, is the person who the most people marked on a ballot.

“Instead of a significant percentage of people feeling not represented,” said Winston Apple, a retired teacher and Democratic operative in Independence who filed the petition about RCV. “Almost every one would have someone in the General Assembly that they feel represents them.”

This video from FairVote.org, a non-partisan organization that supports the adoption of ranked choice voting, explains the system and how it affects elections and campaigns.

Apple said because the two major parties wouldn’t be guaranteed a candidate in a head-to-head race, it would thereby hold the parties more accountable to voters, particularly, which ever party currently holds power.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, the state’s top election official and Republican candidate for governor, is staunchly against ranked choice voting.

“I think what’s really happening is that you have people that have a political objective, they [members of the Democratic party] are unhappy with either who’s being elected or what’s passing,” Ashcroft said. “So they’re [members of the Democratic party] saying, ‘let’s change the rules to put a thumb down on the scale so that we can do better.’”

The analogy of a “thumb on the scale” doesn’t really apply here, because the system would not introduce any partisan advantage to elections, it would just collect and use more information about what voters want.

State agencies predict the system, if adopted, would require a one-time cost of at least $245,000, and ongoing costs of at least $332,000 each general election year. However, with the elimination of primary elections, the agencies estimate the state would possibly save $7 million each general election year.