Recently, partisans with desired electoral outcomes have been sweeping the nation with proposals to upend this simple and understood method of selecting our leaders and replace it with a complicated, fault-filled system known as “Ranked Choice Voting.”

Sold as the solution to all our political woes, in reality it leaves voters confused, delays election results, and leads to thousands of voters being disenfranchised when their ballots are “exhausted” prior to the last “instant run-off.”

The push is being brought here to Arizona too, but this isn’t the first time an effort has been made to “reform” our elections.

In 1988, after a rare Gubernatorial election with a popular independent candidate resulting in the election of a Governor with just under 40% of the vote, who was subsequently impeached, the legislature referred to the voters a measure to amend the constitution to require a majority vote to elect candidates to executive offices in Arizona.

The voters approved it, as Prop 105, by a vote of 56.4%-43.6%. Just two years later, the result was the first Gubernatorial runoff election in Arizona history. It was a disaster. So bad in fact, that legislators quickly referred to the voters an amendment to the constitution to undo what they had just done.

It turns out the voters agreed with lawmakers, approving in 1992 as Prop 100 the repeal of the runoff system, this time by an overwhelming margin of 67%-33%.

02.

It’s clear that any kind of run-off election, including RCV’s “instantaneous run-off” model, is unconstitutional. That’s why voters had to amend the constitution in 1988 to allow it, and why in 1992 they repealed their changes, reverting the constitution back to one ensuring the candidate with the “highest number of votes” is declared elected.