The national Democratic Party voted last weekend against a proposal that could have restricted the use of ranked-choice voting in presidential primaries.
In a voice vote at the Democratic National Committee’s full meeting in Austin, Texas, members voted against adding language to the rules governing the delegate selection process that would have only considered first round votes.
Maine allows voters to rank their preference in primaries for the Legislature, governor, Congress and president, but only in general elections for federal offices. After the presidential primary, each state sends delegates to the national nominating convention in accordance with the rules set by the party.
Jim Roosevelt Jr, co-chair of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, said that the committee had only intended to “clarify existing rules,” but that the suggested changes “caused a bit of a stir.”
Ranked-choice voting proponents in Maine and elsewhere had raised concern that the changes would confuse voters and amounted to the national party trying to steamroll state election processes.
Maine Democratic Party Chair Charlie Dingman, who was at the Austin meeting and among those who advocated against the change, described the vote as “a major victory for Maine voters.”
“The Maine Democratic Party fought hard to protect ranked choice voting and ensure the system Maine voters chose is respected,” Dingman said in a statement to Maine Morning Star.
“We are grateful that leadership of the DNC and its rules committee listened to our concerns and to the voices of DNC members and ultimately worked with us to remove problematic language from the proposed rule,” he added. “Maine has led the way on ranked choice voting for years, and we’re proud that our national party’s rules will continue to respect the voices of Maine voters.”
Under the proposed changes, the rules would have stated: “No ballot used for purposes of allocation of delegates among presidential preference shall permit voters to express more than one presidential preference. Where state law provides for multiple presidential preferences in a primary, only the first round will be considered for delegate allocation purposes.”
Previously, the committee had worked with states that use ranked-choice voting on their delegate selection plans, said committee member Frank Leone of Washington, D.C., who moved to strike the new language.
Speaking in favor of the plan, Artie Blanco of Nevada encouraged other members to “respect the work of the committee.”
But Jessica Cook of Alaska, which also employs ranked-choice voting, argued the proposal “would render a voter’s choice meaningless.”
“We know what works best for our voters and what we need to do to compete,” Cook said. “That’s why we are fired up about this.”