How will ranked-choice voting work in Connecticut?

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — A new working group convened by Gov. Ned Lamont will craft a proposal for the state legislature to introduce ranked-choice voting in some Connecticut elections.

Currently, 29 states allow for ranked-choice voting, mostly in party primaries and municipal elections.

The most common type of ranked-choice voting is a system known as instant-runoff ranked-choice voting. In an election utilizing instant-runoff ranked-choice voting, voters are able to rank each candidate in order of preference. Voters are not required to rank all of the candidates if they do not want to. If no candidate receives a majority of first choice votes, the candidate with the lowest number of first choice votes is eliminated. Voters who listed the eliminated candidate as their first choice then have their second choice counted as part of a second round of vote counting. This process repeats until one candidate has a majority.

For advocates of ranked-choice voting, the process represents something of a remedy for political polarization that they attribute largely to the current system of primary elections.

“The current system rewards factions and it rewards the fringes of a party,” said Monte Frank, an attorney and the vice chair of the working group. “So, the more polarizing you are, the better you do in a partisan, winner-take-all primary.”

Frank sees ranked-choice voting as a way to encourage candidates to court a wider base of support on the theory that being a voter’s second, third or even fourth choice gives them a better chance to win if multiple rounds of vote counting are required.

Frank is the former running mate of the late Oz Greibel, the third-party candidate for governor who captured just under 4% of the vote in the 2018 gubernatorial contest that pitted Republican Bob Stefanowski against Lamont.

“It not only drives voter participation, increases voter choice, but it produces a better candidate, a more consensus-driven candidate, and that improves our democracy,” Frank said.

The governor’s working group includes representation from both political parties and is co-chaired by one state senator from each side of the aisle. Any potential recommendation to the legislature would apply only to the use of ranked-choice voting in primaries, certain municipal elections, caucuses and conventions. Political parties and municipalities would have the choice of whether to adopt ranked-choice voting.

“My hope is that this working group will collect the information necessary to make specific recommendations and hopefully improve voter turnout in Connecticut,” Sen. Cathy Osten (D-District 19) said in a statement announcing the working group.

Osten, who also chairs the legislature’s influential appropriations committee, is sharing leadership of the ranked-choice voting working group with Republican Sen. Tony Hwang (District 28).

“We hope to learn how ranked-choice voting can give the voters of Connecticut a stronger and more representative voice in their local elections,” Hwang said in a statement.

Despite bipartisan interest in exploring the use of ranked-choice voting in Connecticut primaries and municipal elections, concerns remain about the wisdom of making major changes to the voting process.

“One of my concerns globally is that we’ve done a lot of changes to our election laws,” Rep. Vincent Candelora (District 86), the House Republican leader.

Candelora was referencing the introduction of early voting, which Connecticut is implementing for the first time this year. Local elections officials, he said, are challenged by the expanded in-person voting periods and would be further burdened if they had to adapt to the process of tabulating ranked-choice ballots.

Candelora also questioned how many races would actually draw more than two candidates.

“I just think that’s rare when it happens,” he said, “So, you know, to me it’s more of an academic exercise versus something that will really have a practical impact on Connecticut voting.”

The inaugural meeting of the Governor’s Working Group on Ranked-Choice Voting is on June 14.