LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Ranked-choice Voting (RCV) could be coming to a ballot box near you if a group collects enough signatures to get it on the Michigan ballot in 2026.

What is Ranked-choice Voting?

Rank MI Vote is the group looking to get their choice before Michigan voters soon, describes the process as an assurance that the “candidates with the best ideas – not the biggest bank accounts – have a fair shot at running and winning.” According to its website, RCV allows voters to “rank candidates in the order you prefer them. If your 1st choice can’t win, your vote instantly counts toward your backup choice.”

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Ranked Choice Voting Resources says the first choice candidate wins unless there is no majority winner.
That triggers an instant runoff. “The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who ranked that candidate as their first choice will have their votes count for their next choice.” In addition, “This process continues until a majority winner, a candidate with more than half of the vote, wins,” the website explained.

On other words, voters would rank their candidates first, second, third and fourth. Here is a sample ballot.

RCV would apply to candidates up and down the ballot, from presidential elections to local races.

Convenient or confusing?

RCV has been described as a way to eliminate the two-party system and allow people to vote for third or minor party candidates without “wasting their vote.”

However, RCV can be seen as a way for one political party to lock an opposing party out of the process. Michigan News Source reached out to a source familiar with the issue who described it as a way to muddy the waters in the primary election, essentially eliminating that process.

In addition, the source cited the recently passed Proposal 2 which drastically changed Michigan’s elections. The Nov. 5 election marked the first presidential election with the new laws, including at least 9 days of early in-person voting and no reason absentee voting. Michigan News Source was told that RCV would drastically change how Michigan runs elections and would cost significantly money.

How does Ranked-choice Voting rank in other states?

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Voters delivered a blow to Ranked-choice Voting on Nov. 5. It appeared on the ballot in Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, and Idaho where voters rejected those measures. States like Maine and Alaska use the method. However, Alaska is still awaiting the results of a repeal of the method. Nearly 35,000 outstanding ballots are still being counted with those expected to be tallied by Nov. 20, according to the Juneau Empire. The repeal leads by a slight margin.

What’s going on in Michigan?

Voters in five Michigan towns passed RCV measures in recent years, but those are meaningless unless Michigan makes it law. Those communities are East Lansing, Royal Oak, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, and Ferndale.

The goal of Rank MI Vote is to add RCV to the Michigan Constitution through a ballot initiative. It aims to have 40 town halls starting on Monday. The group will begin gathering signatures.