Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) is planning to present several electoral system proposals, including ranked-choice voting, to state lawmakers following the runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Herschel Walker (R), which handed a win to Warnock.
In an interview with The New York Times following the runoff election, Raffensperger said he would offer three proposals to Georgia lawmakers, including one to establish a “ranked choice instant runoff” system, whose main goal would be to eliminate having voters return to the polls after the general election and the costs associated with doing so.
Raffensperger also said he would propose opening more early-voting locations and lowering the vote percentage threshold required of candidates to avoid a runoff election from 50 to 45 percent.
“The elected legislators need to have information so they can look at all the different options that they have and really see what they’re comfortable with,” Raffensperger said.
The Georgia Secretary of State is still in the middle of controversy over his decision to certify the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden just three days after Election Day, as Gateway Pundit’s Joe Hoft observed.
In August 2019, Hans von Spakovsky and J. Adams wrote at the Heritage Foundation that ranked-choice voting is nothing less than “a scheme to disconnect elections from issues and allow candidates with marginal support from voters to win elections.”
“In the end, it is all about political power, not about what is best for the American people and for preserving our great republic,” the authors stated, noting the process serves to “obscure true debates and issue-driven dialogs among candidates and eliminates genuine binary choices between two top-tier candidates.”
“So-called reformers want to change process rules so they can manipulate election outcomes to obtain power,” the Heritage writers asserted about those who promote ranked choice voting.
In the ranked-choice voting system, voters order their candidate choices according to preference.
If none of the candidates are elected the number one pick by a majority of voters, the candidate with the lowest number of votes would be eliminated from the ballot. Voters who selected that candidate as their top choice would automatically have their votes changed to their second pick, and the scores would then be recalculated. This process continues until one of the candidates finally wins a majority as the second, third, or, perhaps, fourth choice of voters.
“In the end, a voter’s ballot might wind up being cast for the candidate he ranked far below his first choice—a candidate to whom he may have strong political objections and for whom he would not vote in a traditional voting system,” explained von Spakovsky and Adams.
For those concerned about voter “disenfranchisement,” ranked choice voting – also called “instant runoff voting” – would be a major instigator since “ballots that do not include the two ultimate finalists are cast aside to manufacture a faux majority for the winner.”
The Heritage authors wrote that even former California Governor Jerry Brown Jr. (D) vetoed a bill to expand ranked-choice voting in his state in 2016, stating it was “overly complicated and confusing” and “deprives voters of genuinely informed choice.”
“Such a system would present many opportunities to rig the electoral system,” von Spakovsky and Adams explained, noting the problem of “ballot exhaustion,” which occurs when voters only rank one or two of the candidates and these are eliminated in the first couple rounds of tallies. Consequently, these voters’ choices will not be considered at all in the remaining rounds.
“This ballot exhaustion leads to candidates being elected who were not the first choice of a majority of voters, but only a majority of ‘all valid votes in the final round of tallying,’” the writers observed, quoting a study by Craig Burnett and Vladimir Kogan. “Thus, ‘it is possible that the winning candidate will fall short of an actual majority,’ eliminating the ‘influence [of many voters] over the final outcome.’”
– – –
Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Brad Raffensperger” by Brad Raffensperger. Background Photo “Voting Station” by Lorie Shaull. CC BY 2.0.
Given the SoS tack record I believe he could screw this up and somehow let the liberals make erodes in the validity of the process…NO! Look at how this worked in Alaska
It sounds too complicated to make a fair and honest system of voting. There are questions about the integrity of the present system. especially about the early voting which give opportunity for intentionally fraudulent activity to be planned and executed.
Is this guy a republican or a democrat. Who put him in this position. Kemp must be afraid of him because Kemp allowed this guy to set up new election procedures and the democrats have been winning since. If this guy is a republican, the party needs to get him out of the party and out of being in charge of the state elections. Come on republican party. Get your heads out of the sand and save the party. This guy and his backer Kemp are not republicans, they aren’t even good rinos, so they gotta be democrats. There should be a song titled “Good by republicans, good by Georgia”. Walker was a terrific candidate and some how something like Feddermen wins, a democrat who didn’t do rallies until the media was wondering where he was. We knew where Walker was and he even spoke English. I don’t believe the last two democrats who won really did win unless Georgia does want empty minds in offices, may be the voters do want incompetent people from Georgia in office. As for the democratsl, they should be ashamed of the people for offices they have offered voters. Or maybe they aren’t ashamed as to what voters sent to Congress as they will be easily controlled by the commie democrats.
Ranked choice voting is what the Heritage Foundation said it was – a clown show. It is past time to stop trying to find ways to disconnect voters from actually going to the polls. The few exceptions should be designed to be as fail-safe as possible and should, without fail, involve positive ID of the voters.
This is true everywhere – not just in Georgia.
The Democrats have been cheating in plain site for decades with no consequences and the Republicans only give it lip service with no action. It’s no wonder we are being invaded on our southern border because we are all talk and no action. We know who is the biggest financier of domestic and international terrorism is and he is hiding in plain site..GEORGE SOROS AKA GEORGIE SCHWARTZ and yet we do nothing!!!!! He needs to be arrested, his assets confiscated, jailed and deported to Hungary and let them what they will to him!!!!
Raffensperger is a RINO just like Richer, the Maricopa County Recorder. They don’t want better, honest election. They settle for elections that give them the results they want.
ABSOLUTELY NO!!!
Another RINO trying to rig the system is all I see but voters put said government in office so they’re the problem.
Yes, considering Herschel really won, but it was another Democrat theft.
Yes IF warranted