Vancouver resident Cemal Richards provides some insight into issues with Ranked-Choice Voting
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
In November of last year, the residents of Clark County rejected the Ranked-Choice Voting Amendment, which would have altered the method for electing county-wide officials. The main reason behind the amendment’s failure at the polls was the lack of understanding about how it operates, which was purposely kept from the public to prevent awareness of its major flaws.
An issue with Ranked-Choice Voting is that it can cause delays in the election counting process. For instance, in Alaska’s Congressional Race last year, it took 16 days after voting for the winner of the special House election held on August 16, 2022, to be announced. The outcome wasn’t even finalized until August 31, 2022.
In addition, hand counting a single precinct is a quick and effective way to compare it with the electronic precinct tabulation and detect any issues. However, if Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is used, the precinct tally would have to be validated against the entire Clark County tally, which consists of 236 precincts, to validate a single precinct. This renders the process of vote recount validation almost impossible due to the high cost of verification.
Cemal Richards
Vancouver
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