Op-Ed: Indiana poised to ban convoluted ranked-voting system

Does Indiana need more complicated, confusing elections? The average voter would likely say “probably not,” which is why both chambers of the Indiana Legislature recently passed Senate Bill 12. This legislation would align Indiana with a national trend: just last year, six states passed similar bans on Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) to protect the integrity of their elections. That brought the total number of states banning RCV to 17. If this momentum continues, RCV may soon be outlawed in half of the United States.

In a normal election, we vote for one candidate for each office. That is simple for voters and for those who count and report results. With RCV, though, voters rank multiple candidates for each office. First-place rankings are counted, and if no candidate has a majority, then the least popular candidate is eliminated and any second-place rankings on those ballots are “moved up” to count in the next round. If all of a voter’s rankings are eliminated, his or her ballot is no longer counted. These rounds of count...