Currently, there are no localities that use a ranked choice system. The city of Riverside flirted with the idea in 2024 but never followed through with their intent.
The Ohio Municipal League, which advocates for the interests of local municipalities at the Statehouse, released a statement Tuesday condemning the bill, particularly for using the state’s power of the purse as leverage.
“The best decisions about local governance should be made at the local level – by the communities and leaders closest to the people they serve,“ said OML Executive Director Kent Scarrett. ”Establishing a precedent where state funding can be cut off when local officials make decisions that state officeholders may not agree with is concerning and undermines that principle."
Ranked choice voting is a system in which voters rank their candidates in order of preference. It stands in contrast to America’s first-past-the-post system wherein voters pick just one candidate.
With ranked choice, the higher a voter ranks a candidate, the more points that candidate gets in the count. Tabulation can take multiple rounds, each time eliminating the last-placed candidate and redistributing their first-ranked votes to whomever the voter picked as their second choice candidate, and so on until a winner is decided.
S.B. 63 was introduced by state Sen. Bill DeMora, a Columbus Democrat who is a paid employee of the Ohio Democratic Party; alongside Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green.
Dems split
In its legislative journey, the bill revealed some fault lines within the Democratic party.
In the Senate, it was initially approved by Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, before she flipped her vote. In a statement, she said she initially believed that Ohio “was not ready” for ranked choice.
“I’ve listened to my constituents who have made it clear that this is the best option for our community,” Antonio said. “I am changing my previous vote to stand with those who support ranked choice voting in my district and our state.”
The majority of Senate Democrats, including Sen. Willis Blackshear Jr., D-Dayton, stood in permanent opposition; and the entire Republican caucus voted in favor of the ban.
In the House, party lines were clearer. Only one Democrat, Rep. Dan Troy, D-Willowick, voted for the ban, alongside every House Republican.
House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, told reporters the morning of the House vote that he didn’t think the legislature should tell local governments “what they can try.”
“If they want to try something new, great. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, let’s move on,” Isaacsohn. “We talk a lot in the country about how our states and our cities and our communities are laboratories of democracy, that’s how we make progress.”
On the Republican side, House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, told reporters that passing S.B. 63 was a way to preempt a voting system that he viewed as convoluted and potentially damaging for voters.
“I think most of the ranked choice voting concepts are pretty confusing. I think even the people who want to put them on aren’t quite sure who wins and who makes the finals and all of that,” Huffman said.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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