(The Center Square) — The Georgia Senate passed a measure Friday to bar ranked-choice voting in the state.
The chamber passed Senate Bill 355 by a 31-19 margin.
“We must aggressively fend off any attempts of anyone attempting to hijack our election software while also combating those who attempt to reduce voter turnout or confuse our citizens with overcomplicated processes under the guise of saving money,” state Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, said during Friday’s debate. “One such idea that has crawled out of the tar pits from yesterday is rank choice voting or RCV.”
Robertson said rank choice voting has been around since the early 1900s. While the approach disappeared, “some politicians who did not like runoffs” reintroduced the process, the lawmaker added.
During Friday’s debate, state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, said moving to ranked-choice voting, could help save the cost of runoffs. The 2020 U.S. Senate runoff cost $75 million, Parent said.
“I view SB 355 as the latest part of the disinformation campaign about elections and, therefore, another effort to undermine faith and democratic principles and systems,” Parent said.
“Before we pass any legislation, we should ask ourselves, what is the purpose of the policy under consideration?” Parent asked. “One key question might be, does this policy banning rank-choice voting support good governance? A follow-on to that is, is there an actual problem to be solved by the legislation or an issue to be addressed? Here with SB 355, the answer is a clear ‘no,’ because ranked-choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, isn’t legal anywhere in Georgia today.”
Parent noted that Georgians serving in the military overseas vote via ranked choice.
The state Senate also passed Senate Bill 358 by a 30-19 margin. It clarifies that the State Election Board can investigate the secretary of state, an office currently occupied by Republican Brad Raffensperger.
“In order to have free and fair elections, Georgians must have the utmost trust in their state’s elections systems,” Lt. Governor Burt Jones, a Republican, said in a statement. “Senate Bills 355 and 358 strengthen our elections process by dispelling ambiguity and increasing public trust with Georgia’s voters.”
Raffensperger’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Ranked based voting is a corruption of the concept of the very national Electoral College system devised to protect the small states from being abused that also allows candidates to be elected President without a majority of the popular vote, but protects America from Mob, or Mob boss rule where manipulation of mis-aroused emotions can prevail in electing the best candidate. Ranked based voting at the local level only allows the slick politicians to arrange enough cross-over voters to corruptly, and individually, divide the sane voters and individually steal the small elections one at a time, that collectively leads to the election of thieves on a national level, who only represent their ability to steal, not the will of THE PEOPLE. Where the Electoral college protects the small states, ranked based voting elevates opportunities for small minded party criminal minorities the ability to poison the wells of American elections in ways that in the end, harm the majority of people within their own parties. Had ranked choice voting been alive in Lincoln’s day he never would have made it to be President.
The type of voting should be universal in the US. Select your candidate from a list or write-in a name (I’ve always liked Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck). Someone gets the most votes and they are the winner. Very easy, Very simple.
RCV defeats the whole concept of one person one vote. But that’s what the democrats are trying to do away with