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A national organization advocating for wider use of ranked-choice voting (RCV) is pointing to recent Maryland primaries to bolster its argument that it鈥檚 preferable to have candidates who win outright majorities rather than those who win elections with a fraction of the vote.
The group FairVote聽Friday showing that so far this year, 49 candidates have won statewide congressional primaries across the country with less than 50% of the vote. Five of those races were in Maryland: the Republican primary in the 7th District and the Democratic and Republican primaries in both the 3rd District and the 6th District.
鈥淚n our current single-choice voting system, a candidate can win an election with far less than 50% of the vote, meaning a majority of voters voted for someone other than the winner,鈥� FairVote wrote in its analysis. 鈥淭hat presents two major problems for our elections:
- If the candidate is in a district safe for their party, they鈥檝e essentially secured an office with just a fraction of a fraction of their constituents behind them.
- If the candidate is in a competitive district, they enter the general election weaker, without most of their party behind them.鈥�
FairVote is a leading national advocate for ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates as they cast their ballots. The theory is that a winner of a primary or general election will be the choice of a majority of voters 鈥� even if they weren鈥檛 the top choice of a majority of voters initially.
In Maryland鈥檚聽聽this year, Robert Steinberger won the GOP primary with over eight opponents, with 25.1% of the vote, while state Sen. Sarah K. Elfreth (D-Anne Arundel) won the 22-candidate Democratic primary with 36.2% of the vote. She鈥檚 the overwhelming favorite to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-3rd).
鈥淭he 3rd District is safely Democratic, meaning Elfreth will have an easy victory come November,鈥澛�. 鈥淓ssentially, this seat was chosen by a fraction of a fraction of voters.鈥�
In the聽聽Maryland鈥檚 most competitive, both nominees, former U.S. Commerce Department official April McLain Delaney (D) and former Del. Neil C. Parrott (R-Washington) won their multicandidate primaries with 40.4% and 45.9% respectively, a rare case of general election candidates competing in a swing district who did not win majorities in their respective primaries.
The other race in Maryland was the Republican primary in the heavily Democratic 7th District, where Scott Collier聽聽of the vote to beat two primary challengers for the opportunity to take on the entrenched Democratic incumbent, Rep. Kweisi Mfume.
鈥淲hile many of the candidates currently winning crowded primaries with 25 or 30 percent of the vote might also win an RCV primary, they鈥檇 go into the general election with majority support and a stronger mandate,鈥� FairVote wrote. 鈥淢ore voters would be invested in their party鈥檚 nominee, whether they ranked them first, second, or later on their ballots.鈥�
In Maryland, ranked-choice voting has been on the books for municipal elections in Takoma Park for many years. It is also being used in statewide elections in Maine and Alaska and in several other municipalities across the country, including New York City.
Maryland state lawmakers have so far resisted efforts to expand ranked-choice voting into larger jurisdictions in the state.
