One Person, One Vote!
Voter Suppression & Spoiled Ballots
Voting should be simple. There is a reason why the NAACP calls Ranked Choice Voting "Complicated" and "Discriminatory", with members comparing it to the "dreaded poll tax". The ACLU recently said RCV "exacerbates economic and racial disparities in voting. Voting errors and spoiled ballots occur far more often. In Minneapolis, nearly 10% of the IRV ballots were not counted. most of these in low-income communities of color." Studies have shown that the complexity of a Racked Choice Voting ballot significantly increases errors on ballots and spoiled ballots (ballots that aren't counted due to errors.)
Cities that use RCV spend a tremendous amount of money trying to "teach" people how to do a RCV vote. Santa Fe recently spent $17.50 per voter in RCV education. There are four things to look at to gauge voter confusion, and if it is discriminatory: Spoiled Ballot, Incorrectly filled out ballots, lower turnout, and demographics.
IRV "exacerbates economic and racial disparities in voting. Voting errors and spoiled ballots occur far more often. In Minneapolis, nearly 10% of the IRV ballots were not counted. most of these in low-income communities of color."
Vagnesh Ganapathy
ACLU of Kansas
Director of Policy
Racial Justice Project
New York, NY
Members of the New York City's Council's Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus, various NAACP's, One Hundred Black Men of New York come out against RCV:
In addition, Billionaire's Dark Money played a big part in the NYC's RCV Campaign, so much so, that they are prosing a new law to stop "Dark Money" in the future.
Civil Rights ICON Rev. Jesse Jackson & Memphis, TN NAACP come out AGAINST RCV/IRV
"The NAACP Memphis Branch also has concerns about how voters could be further disenfranchised if their votes are thrown out as a part of the IRV process."
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis has used RCV in recent elections. Immediately, researchers discovered problems of discrimination. Prof. Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School, found RCV "leaves open the well-documented voting gap that favors white voters and the affluent."
Minneapolis' Elections Department releases information showing turnout, and number of spoiled ballot in their elections. Below is a comparison of spoiled in their 2005 traditional election, and the 2009 Ranked Choice Election. Click the chart to see the actual data released by the elections department.
Oakland, CA RCV Repeal Effort
Oakland first used RCV in 2010. They spent hundreds of thousand of dollars on education, including a concerted effort in traditionally disenfranchised communities. Below are the results:
Oakland, CA
Immediately following the controversial Oakland IRV election, Oakland Council President Ignacio De La Fuente submitted a resolution to REPEAL RCV, noting the "controversial Ranked Choice Voter System has disenfranchised and confused many Oakland voters even after spending hundreds of thousand of dollars on voter education". It was blocked by the new councilmembers who were elected using RCV.
Santa Fe, NM
Actual Spoiled Ballot
Santa Fe, NM recently was forced to use RCV. Like Memphis, they adopted RCV a decade ago and had not used it because no voting machines were certified. After reviewing the 10 years of research on IRV, the City was not interested in using a system which was confusing to voters. The spent $350,000 on "education", or about $17 per voter in the election. In the end, the Elections Department released data showing a 650% increase in spoiled ballots.
To see the hundreds of actual SPOILED ballots from Santa Fe, go to this GALLERY.