Ranked choice question on ballot

Missouri voters will face potential change to the voting process

In a legislative session that was marked by disputes over asking voters whether they wanted to change the initiative petition process, another resolution was passed that will put the question of ranked choice voting before the people.

Ranked choice voting refers to the practice in which voters rank the candidates on a ballot according to preference. If one candidate receives an outright majority, they would win the election.

If none have a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated, and the votes that indicated that candidate as their top ranked choice would be dispersed among the remaining candidates according to the ranking of candidates on those ballots.

If no candidate has a majority after this reevaluation, the process is repeated by eliminating the next lowest ranked candidate, and redistributing their voters until one candidate has a majority of votes and can be declared the winner. This is the most common ranked choice voting practice, but there can be variations.

State Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, who carried the Senate resolution sponsored by state Sen. Ben Brown when it reached the Missouri House, argued that the practice of ranked choice voting is confusing to voters.

“Missourians don’t want more voter confusion and exhaustion when they go to the ballot box than they already have,” Baker said. “They don’t want slower results. They don’t want increased irregularities. Missourians don’t want to show up to the polls only to have their votes thrown out.”

State Rep. Eric Woods, D-Kansas City, raised the concern that prohibiting