With election reform and accessibility top of mind in national politics, Vermont lawmakers are considering their own election reform bill that would establish ranked choice voting for federal elections in Vermont.
Should S.229 become law this session, Vermonters could rank their preferred federal candidates as soon as the 2024 presidential primaries. The bill would not apply to state-level candidates, such as governor and lieutenant governor.
Ranked choice ballots allow people to vote for multiple candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a decisive majority vote (more than 50%), the candidate with the least support is eliminated. Anyone who voted for the eliminated candidate then has their second-choice candidates counted.
Proponents of the bill say that it is particularly useful when there are three or more candidates in a given race and support could be divided between several similarly minded candidates.
“I hesitate to make this partisan, but Donald Trump is a clear case of this,” Sen. Chris Pearson, P/D-Chittenden, said at a Monday news conference. “When he was first in the primary, he did not have anything close to a majority of support in the Republican primary, and that was true for state after state. But he had a very solid base of support that eventually eclipsed the fraction … of that electorate that was split among a whole bunch of candidates.”
Supporters also say it’s helpful for early voters. Take the presidential primary for example: If a military member serving overseas mails their ballot back in January, their top candidate at that time may drop out of the race by the time Super Tuesday rolls around, effectively rendering their vote useless. With ranked choice, their second or third picks could be considered.
State Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, is championing the bill, along with Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, and six other Democratic and Progressive senators. Ram Hinsdale and Balint are running in the Democratic primary for Vermont’s lone U.S. House seat this year, but the bill would not impact their current election cycles.
Ram Hinsdale said ranked choice also could make the campaign trail more accessible to candidates who have views outside of the political party’s norm. In a phone call with VTDigger, she said she has in past election cycles been pressured not to run in races for fear of being a “spoiler” candidate that would divide up the vote — an accusation that she said is more easily lodged against candidates who “seem like the underdog” or don’t “appear as part of the establishment.”
Lawmakers have consistently mulled over some form of ranked choice voting for several years now, Pearson said. But as state legislatures around the country move to roll back voting access, proponents of S.229 hope to inspire their more hesitant colleagues to join the cause.
Ram Hinsdale on Monday said she was unsure if proponents could whip a veto-proof majority to pass the bill — and they might need it. On Monday, the governor’s spokesperson, Jason Maulucci, told VTDigger via email that Republican Gov. Phil Scott has not yet reviewed the bill “but broadly he does not support (ranked choice voting) and believes the person who receives the most votes the first time should win.”
“Instead of changing what people do on a ballot, he believes we should focus on increasing voter accessibility and participation by proactively mailing ballots to all registered voters for all elections in Vermont, including primary and local elections,” Maulucci wrote. “Currently, that is only in place for general elections, which have the highest voter turnout already. Expanding the proactive mailing of ballots to all elections is the most meaningful thing we can do to strengthen participation in the democratic process.”
