The Georgia State Senate has passed Senate Bill 355, legislation aimed at banning ranked-choice voting in the state's elections. The bill, authored by Georgia Senate Majority Whip Randy Robertson (R-Cataula), will now proceed to the Georgia House of Representatives.
In response to issues observed during the 2020 election, Georgia implemented comprehensive election integrity legislation in 2021. This included securing drop boxes, enhancing voter ID requirements, expanding legislative oversight, and cleaning voter rolls. In 2023, lawmakers addressed the “Zuckerbucks” loophole to prevent external influences on election administration for the upcoming 2024 elections.
“After fixing known problems of past elections, lawmakers in the Peach State can now guard against future threats to election integrity, namely ranked-choice voting,” said Allen Cambon, State Government Affairs Director at the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA). “Thanks to the leadership of Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and Senator Randy Robertson, Georgia lawmakers have the opportunity to protect their state against messy election gimmicks ahead of the 2024 president election.”
Ranked-choice voting has been criticized for causing voter disenfranchisement, diminishing voter confidence, delaying and inaccurately reporting election results, and creating confusion among voters. These issues have been observed in Maine, Alaska, New York City, Alameda County (California), and other regions. Consequently, five states have already banned ranked-choice voting while others are considering similar legislation. In Alaska specifically, voters are seeking to repeal ranked-choice voting after two years under its system.
“Georgia has done fantastic work to secure their elections. Banning ranked-choice voting is the best next step to prevent the Left from engineering election results in critical swing states,” said Madeline Malisa, Senior Fellow at FGA. “Other states have experimented with this failed voting system. Georgia would be wise to slam the door on ranked-choice voting and throw away the key.”
If passed by the House and signed into law, Georgia would join Idaho, Montana, South Dakota as well as neighboring Tennessee and Florida in prohibiting ranked-choice voting.