To say 2024 was a terrible year for ranked-choice voting would be an understatement. Not only did six states ban it, but voters in six states also rejected it at the ballot box. Pro-RCV groups spent more than $100 million pushing those ballot initiatives, lavishly outspending opponents, yet they lost. Just a few months into 2025, it’s shaping up to be another devastating year for ranked-choice voting.

All this is good news for voters, since RCV makes the entire election process more complex, slower and more difficult. Instead of just voting for one candidate, in an RCV election voters are asked to rank all of the candidates. When ballots are counted, less popular candidates are eliminated. Voters who selected those candidates have their second choices counted – or, if they don’t have another choice, their ballots are eliminated. This process of counting, moving votes, throwing out ballots, and recounting goes on until a candidate has a majority of what’s left.

No wonder five more states have already banned RCV this year: Kansas, Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota, and Arkansas. Similar bills are working their way through legislatures in states like Texas, Georgia, and Ohio. A bill to ban ranked-choice voting in Iowa is on the governor’s desk awaiting her signature.

And that’s not all. Repeal movements are active in Alaska and in major cities like Oakland and San Francisco. In Maine, a bill to repeal ranked-choice voting passed the state House before dying in the Senate. Last November, a ballot measure to repeal it in Alaska came within 743 votes of passing.

All of this probably comes as a shock to well-funded “election reform” groups like FairVote and Unite America and their donors. A few years ago, they seemed to be winning. Their big spending convinced voters in Alaska, Maine, and various cities and towns to adopt RCV. Now they are spending tens of millions of dollars just to defend their convoluted election system. RCV faces fierce bipartisan opposition.

A great example is what happened in Kansas last month. The Republican majority legislature passed a ban on RCV, and Gov. Laura Kelly signed it into law. That made her the first Democratic governor to enact an RCV ban, although Democratic governors in other states have vetoed RCV legislation.

Repeal efforts in Oakland and San Francisco are led by Democrats upset with the urban decay their once-beautiful cities are experiencing due to the so-called progressive officials elected by the system. For example, the San Francisco School Board, which is elected by RCV, voted to remove Algebra 1 from middle school in a twisted attempt to create a more “equitable” system.

Oakland’s Mayor Sheng Thao was recalled only two years after her election for presiding over an increase in violent crime and having her home raided by the FBI over accusations of corruption. She became a poster child for RCV after winning in the ninth round by receiving the most second-place votes.

The Stop RCV movement is one of the most successful political coalitions in recent memory. But its success isn’t just due to those fighting against the scheme. We should thank pro-RCV groups and officials elected by the system for showing the public firsthand how confusing and unworkable it is.

(The Center Square) – Increased oversight of making rules in state agencies is expected to be discussed in the North Carolina Senate when lawmakers return from an Easter break.

The NC REINS Act, known also as House Bill 402 and Senate Bill 290, picked up one Democrat’s vote in the House of Representatives’ 68-44 passage. Four Republicans were excused from the vote and all others were in favor.

The General Assembly, if the bill becomes law, would have a statutory role in rule approval if the executive branch creates a rule with economic impact of $1 million. In a speech on the House floor, Nash County Republican Rep. Allen Chesser explained few of the more than 110,000 state regulations would hit the threshold.

The proposal, he said, is meant for accountability.

“The NC REINS Act is about giving the people of North Carolina a stronger voice in the rules that shape their lives,” Chesser said at an introductory news conference last month. “Right now, unelected bureaucrats can impose regulations with major financial consequences without direct oversight from the General Assembly. The current process is not transparent. We can do better.”

Similar legislation is pending in at least a dozen states, including Georgia and South Carolina, said Jaimie Cavanaugh, legal policy counsel at Pacific Legal Foundation. Wyoming passed a bill this year, she said.

Some legislative critics of the proposal have said that the proposal could be dangerous because it would create an extra layer of approval for regulations aimed at protecting public health. The only Democrat in favor was Cumberland County’s Charles Smith.

No sessions of the Legislature are scheduled this week. The General Assembly convenes Monday of next week, with most action unlikely to happen before Tuesday. Crossover day is May 8.

(The Center Square) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to put his stamp on the U.S. State Department through an overhaul of the department responsible for the country’s foreign relations.

“Over the past 15 years, the Department’s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared. But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy,” Rubio said Tuesday. “The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests.”

The reorganization would cut more than 700 positions. It would also eliminate 132 of 734 offices. Rubio pointed to some examples, including the Global Engagement Center that he closed last week.

“The office engaged with media outlets and platforms to censor speech it disagreed with, including that of the President of the United States, who its director in 2019 accused of employing ‘the same techniques of disinformation as the Russians,'” Rubio said. “Despite Congress voting to shutter it, the GEC simply renamed itself and continued operating as if nothing had changed.”

The GEC had a budget of about $61 million.

Rubio said the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor “became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary, and Brazil, and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes.”

And Rubio singled out the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which he said “funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to international organizations and NGOs that facilitated mass migration around the world, including the invasion on our southern border.”

Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the Department of State, said the reorganization wouldn’t result in immediate layoffs.

“This is a reorganization plan” she said. “It is not something where people are being fired today, no one is going to be walking out the building, it’s not that kind of dynamic. It’s a road map. A plan. A Congressional notice has been sent.”