Iowa would join 13 states that have banned ranked choice voting under a bill that’s cleared the Iowa Senate with Republican support.
Senator Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, said a ballot where all candidates in a race are to be ranked from first to last choice would be confusing to voters.
“In my view ranked choice voting makes it harder to vote,” he said. “It makes the votes harder to count.”
Democrats in the state senate voted against banning ranked choice voting, which tabulated preferences in rounds, with the lowest vote getter in each round eliminated until a winner gets a majority of votes. Senator Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat from Waukee, said ranked choice voting determines the consensus choice.
“Politics as usual sets up two choices: one over the other, winner-takes-all,” she said, “which breeds division and only fuels partisanship and breeds political attacks.”
So far this month, Republican governors in Wyoming and Virginia have signed laws that ban ranked choice voting. The bill banning it in Iowa is now under consideration in the Iowa House State Government Committee.