Bee Tree to host talk on ranked choice voting Sept. 17

The Washington County Federation of Republican Women is hosting a presentation by Theo Wold on ranked choice voting at the Bee Tree Folks School, located at 30 E. Idaho St, Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 6:30 p.m.

 As former Solicitor General of Idaho, Wold also served as the Acting-Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President Donald Trump.

 Prior to his three-and-a-half years of service in the Trump White House, Wold served as Deputy Chief Counsel to United States Senator Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

 Billed to attend the Sept. 17 presentation is Rep. Judy Boyle, Sen. Brandon Shippy and House Dist. 9 candidate John Shirts.

 It won’t be the first time Wold has spoken in Weiser, the most recent during a Washington County Republican Central Committee (WCRCC) presentation held at the Vendome Events Center Aug. 19.

 During that presentation, Wold quoted MLB Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, stating that “If it ain’t broke, don’t be the idiot who breaks it.”

 He uses the philosophy to describe what he says proponents of ranked choice voting are attempting to do in Idaho and have already done in several other states, including in major elections in Maine and Alaska.

    In ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates in order of preference, marking candidates as their first, second and third choice picks, and so on. 

   The winner must have a majority (more than 50% of the votes) rather than a plurality (simply the most votes). 

   In Maine, ranked choice only takes effect when three or more candidates are on the ballot. Voting is counted by round, with lowest-ranked candidates eliminated in each round until only two candidates remain. 

 Ranked choice voting, many say, will abdicate traditional election oversite and process to a complicated algorithm that allows candidates who otherwise would have a slim chance of winning an election the opportunity to come out “elected” officials.

 Supporters, backed by Idaho Democrats, call their effort a “grass roots” movement. They were able to collect enough signatures to put what they are styling as “Proposition 1” on November’s ballot. The initiative would move Idaho to a ranked choice voting system in choosing Idaho’s representatives while eliminating partisan primaries.

 “Ranked choice voting cannot be done through hand balloting,” Wold explained during his Aug. 19 presentation. “It’s a very complex system that relies on advanced statistical algorithms to be performed and that’s not something an individual can do. I mean, I guess, if you were a statistician or advance mathematics Ph.D., maybe, but how many of those do we have here this evening?”

 Supporters, he claims, have three major arguments they say justify ranked choice voting. The first, he says, involves voter participation. Supporters also have a problem with what they describe as minority candidates prevailing in elections. Lastly, they claim some are shutout of the political process.

 Wold addressed all three claims, beginning with voter participation.

 He suggested that ranked choice voting supporters want to destroy an Idaho electoral history that is based on a high percent average turnout. Many RCV opponents are concerned that ranked choice voting would all but eviscerate that percentage due to confusion and frustration at the voting booth. As a result, those who know who they want to vote for, but are forced to vote for candidates with whom they would otherwise never consider, may inadvertently have their votes disqualified or may not turn out to the voting booths at all.

   “Idaho consistently averages about 68% turnout in most elections,” Wold said. “Now, there are those who hold to what I think is sort of a misguided political philosophy that would say, ‘Well, unless you are at a hundred percent, then there is something wrong. If everyone and their brother isn’t turning out to vote in an election, then there must be some kind of mistake. Actually, 68% is relatively high and is extremely high for the region … So, relative to the rest of the country, 68% is a really good mark.”

 The argument for a 51-percent-majority-wins philosophy is flawed, he said.

 “You’ve got minority candidates that 50% or so of the public don’t support, but still win the office … What it means is, they don’t want anyone winning office who doesn’t get 50% of the vote plus one,” he said. “They don’t want what we call … plurality; if you are not getting 51% of the vote, you must be an extremist candidate and you shouldn’t be entitled to hold office.”

 Under the plurality system, the candidate who polls more votes than any other candidate is elected, whether it’s 51 percent or 28 percent. 

    Opponents say that ranked choice allows a candidate who finishes low in initial voting to rise to the top after several rounds of vote redistribution.

 Citing a school board election in Oakland, California as an example, Wold said ranked choice voting causes confusion and can lead to lawsuits. See https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/03/08/oakland-ranked-choice-voting-fias....

 Wold took two hours at the Aug. 19 event, addressing supporters’ positions point by point.

 In the end, he isn’t buying what they are selling.

 “The idea of ranked choice voting … it’s kind of like grandpappy’s magic elixir: it’ll put hair on year head, make your rheumatism go away … it’s a special cure-all to fix everything,” he said. “RCV will suddenly make America less partisan and our discourse much richer and more detailed and less extreme. If you believe that, there’s a Brooklyn Bridge I’d love to sell you.”

 Wold will address all three of RCV proponents’ arguments at the Sept. 17 event at the Bee Tree. All are invited to attend and the event is free.

 Other articles to read:

 Ranked Choice Voting: A Disaster in Disguise: https://thefga.org/research/ranked-choice-voting-a-disaster-in-disguise/

Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center: https://idgop.org/rcv/.