Missouri voters approve ban on ranked choice voting

Missourians have approved a constitutional amendment that prohibits ranked-choice or approval voting — becoming the 11th state to do so.

The amendment was approved by roughly a 2-to-1 margin.

Ranked-choice and approval voting have been adopted in places such as Maine and Alaska. Proponents argue that these changes make elections less polarized and hyperpartisan.

In a ranked-choice system, voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than picking only one. An animation demonstrating the process can be found here.

Supporters of ranked-choice voting who opposed the ban argued that ranked-choice systems encourage candidates to appeal to a broader political spectrum, rather than pandering to the most ideologically extreme voters in either party.

Opponents of ranked-choice voting who supported the ban countered that ranked-choice and approval voting are more confusing and likely to result in ballot errors.

St. Louis already has adopted a form of approval voting for its citywide primary elections. In this system, voters can cast a ballot for multiple candidates. The two candidates with the most support win. St. Louis will continue to use approval voting because it was implemented before the Amendment 7 ban.

The amendment also changes a line in the Missouri Constitution to specify that “only” U.S. citizens have the right to vote, rather than “all” U.S. citizens.

Noncitizen voting was already illegal under Missouri law before the approval of Amendment 7, but this modification alters the Missouri Constitution to explicitly ban noncitizen voting. It also is already illegal under federal law.

The campaigns on both sides of Amendment 7 have been relatively quiet compared with campaigns on the more high-profile abortion and sports betting amendments. Four political committees filed spending reports on this amendment: Southland Progress and Preserve Local Elections in opposition, and Missouri Right to Life and Americans for Citizen Voting in support.

Americans for Citizen Voting spent more than $250,000 campaigning in support of Amendment 7. Preserve Local Elections spent about $3,500 campaigning in opposition.

Southland Progress, a political committee in southern Kansas City, also opposed Amendment 7, and Missouri Right to Life supported it. Both committees spent less than $1,000 on the campaign.

This article first appeared on Beacon: Missouri.