Ranked-Choice Voting for Presidential Primaries

WHEREAS 25%¹ of Washington State’s Democratic presidential primary voters effectively “wasted²” their vote in 2020, because they cast their ballot for a candidate who dropped out of the race before Election Day³;

WHEREAS Washington State had the highest rate of “wasted” votes in the nation⁴;

WHEREAS Ranked-Choice Voting solves this problem⁵ of wasted votes by allowing voters to list their backup choice in case their first choice drops out or doesn’t reach the threshold for allocating delegates;

WHEREAS the Democratic National Committee approved every Ranked-Choice Voting delegate selection plan submitted in the 2020 presidential cycle, and Maine (which, like Washington, uses a state-run party primary), employed ranked-choice voting in their March 5, 2024 presidential primary nominating contest⁶;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Young Democrats of Clark County call on their Washington state representatives to support the passage of legislation to allow voters to rank their choices in the presidential primary.

Adopted by the Young Democrats of Clark County on 09/17/2024

Signed by Chair Lea Bain

Footnotes

1. Twenty-five percent of the vote in Washington did not contribute to delegate assignment.
2. Wasted is a technical term to describe the fact that the votes themselves were legitimate and were counted, but that, because the candidate was no longer in the race and had released their delegates, the votes did not contribute to delegate assignment.
3.  Line 504-521; https://www.sos.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/2020%2520P2%2520Final%2520Signed%2520Certification.pdf
4.  https://fairvote.org/the-wasted-votes-wheel/
5.  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/11/ranked-choice-voting-us-primary-elections-washington
6. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/05/us/elections/results-maine-democratic-presidential-primary.html

See more: the original statement as signed and adopted by the membership of the Young Democrats of Clark County.