Legislature Uses Ranked Choice Voting to Gauge Interest in Interim Study Topics
Fans of ranked choice voting, take note: the South Dakota Legislature uses ranked choice voting!
As I mentioned earlier, the Legislature’s Executive Board will meet Monday after session to choose interim study topics. The Executive Board will base its choices on a survey, completed by 68 of its 105 members, asking legislators to pick and rank up to five topics, out of fifteen submitted, that they’d like to see studied this summer. The Legislative Research Council has tallied the results by a ranked choice voting system, giving each topic five points for each “1” ranking, four points for each “2”, three for each “3” two for each “4”, and “1” for each 5.
Compare the rankings that would result from allowing each member to vote solely for their single favorite topic and the rankings calculated by LRC from ranked choice voting:
Topic/ rank by single vote/ rank by ranked choice voting
A: Non-English Driver License Exams 10 12
B: Econ. Impact Illegal Immigration 5 10
C: Wind Energy Permits, Laws, Subsidies 10 9
D: CAFO Zoning 8 13
E: K-12 Mental Health & Safety 1 1
F: Brand Board 3 5
G: Trust Land County Budget Impact 13 10
H: 4-H 15 14
I: Drug Court/Treatment for Homeless 8 6
J: Special Ed Cost 5 3
K: Mental Health Services 3 2
L: State Health Insurance Expansion 7 7
M: Budget Cuts 2 4
N: School Capital Outlay 10 7
O: REAL ID Data 13 15
In both cases, Topic E, K-12 Mental Health and Safety, comes out on top. It received seventeen first-place votes, the most for any proposed topic. Under ranked choice voting, Topic E wins 85 points for those seventeen #1 votes, plus 24 for six 2s, 21 for seven 3s, and six for three 4s, for 136 total RCV points.
Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2018/03/25/legislature-uses-ranked-choice-voting-to-gauge-interest-in-interim-study-topics/