My name is Walter Olson. I am a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, where I study law and in particular election law. My previous career includes thirty years spent at the Manhattan Institute and American Enterprise Institute. Under Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan I served as Republican co-chair of three commissions aimed at improving the fairness and impartiality of redistricting in my own state of Maryland.

Ranked choice voting (RCV) is a promising way to give voters a more powerful voice in who represents them and better match the outcome of elections to genuine voter preferences. It has a long history of support from economists, very much including economists of a free-market leaning, which is one reason Cato scholars have long urged that it be given consideration. It reduces the role of “spoiler” candidates and makes it less likely that a broadly unpopular candidate will slip through in a crowded field with, say, 27 percent of the vote.

Contrary to some claims, ranked choice voting is neutral between parties and between political ideologies. In Ireland and Australia, which have used RCV for roughly a century for some races, conservative parties do fine, and parties in general remain cohesive and powerful. Both countries are models of political stability. Canadian conservatives just used RCV to nominate promising new party leader Pierre Poilievre, and Virginia Republicans used RCV to nominate Glenn Youngkin, who went on to win the state’s governorship.

Ranked choice voting, as courts have repeatedly made clear, is fully consistent with the U.S. Constitution, which wisely leaves details of election administration such as these to the states and localities.

Conservative principles of localism and decentralization point toward allowing localities to decide for themselves whether to use this method in local elections. If one town or county chooses to use RCV, it in no way harms residents of neighboring towns or counties. What is right for one might not be right for another. For example, RCV is sometimes thought to be especially useful in party primaries and nonpartisan races, since those kinds of election may attract a large field of candidates splitting the vote many ways. The best approach is to let localities decide whether it suits local conditions.

The Rocky Mountain West has historically earned the country’s gratitude as the great incubator of innovation in American election law, pioneering new methods whose wisdom is eventually recognized by other states back East. Please leave room for this spirit of innovation and experimentation to continue to grow and flourish in Utah.

Further Reading

“Election Law,” Cato Institute Handbook for Policymakers, 2022,

Walter Olson, “Ranked Choice Voting in Local Elections: A Case for Home Rule,” Cato at Liberty, Oct. 5, 2022,

Jimmy Balser, “Ranked-Choice Voting: Legal Challenges and Considerations for Congress”, Congressional Research Service, Oct. 12, 2022 (on courts’ upholding of RCV against federal constitutional challenge).