The Democratic National Committee had an opportunity to reject ranked-choice voting in its 2028 presidential nominating process. Instead, after months of consideration, the DNC reversed course amid mounting pressure from Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) activists and prominent Democrats.
The reversal is yet another victory for activists in pushing a voting system which makes casting and counting ballots more complicated and comes as a growing number of states reject the system altogether.
Activist Pressure Wins
The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee had previously advanced a rule limiting the use of RCV in allocating presidential delegates. But the proposal drew a backlash from supporters, including Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who has publicly championed expanding the system.
Ultimately, the DNC gave into the activists and reinstated RCV.
“The ranked-choice voting lobby turned up the pressure, and the DNC caved,” said Ken Cuccinelli, National Chairman of Heritage Action’s Election Transparency Initiative. “Instead of rejecting a confusing voting system, Democrats gave activists what they demanded.”
When Your Vote Stops Counting
Under RCV, voters rank candidates rather than choosing just one. Votes are retabulated through multiple rounds as candidates are eliminated and ballots transfer to subsequent choices.
But not every ballot necessarily makes it to the final round. If every candidate a voter ranked has been eliminated, the ballot becomes “exhausted” and no longer counts toward determining the eventual winner. More complicated ballots can also create additional opportunities for voter-marking errors and rejected votes.
Elections should not require voters to anticipate who might survive multiple elimination rounds to ensure their ballot matters.
States Are Moving the Other Way
While RCV activists push to expand the system, 19 states now prohibit ranked-choice voting in all or some elections. Eight enacted restrictions in just the last two years: Indiana and Ohio in 2026, following Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming in 2025.
Rejecting RCV reflects the principle of easy to vote and hard to cheat.
The DNC had a chance to do just that, but chickened out due to activist pressure.
Voters deserve elections where every valid vote counts, and the path from casting a ballot to declaring a winner is clear.
Ranked-choice voting takes us in the opposite direction.