Oklahoma bans ranked-choice voting, joins six other states in prohibition

On April 29, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) signed HB 3156 into law, banning the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the state. The new law makes Oklahoma the seventh state to ban RCV, and the second state to do so this year after Kentucky did so earlier in the month. Every state that has passed a law banning RCV did so with a Republican controlled legislature, all since 2022.

HB 3156 passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives 63-16 on March 13, with all Democrats and one Republican voting against passage. It passed the Oklahoma State Senate along party lines on April 24. The new law broadly prohibits ranked voting in the state, saying: “No election conducted by the State Election Board, a county election board, or any municipality authorized to conduct elections in Oklahoma shall use ranked choice voting, ranked voting, proportional ranked voting, preferential voting, or instant runoff voting.”

Oklahoma’s Task Force on Campaign Finance and Election Threats, which Gov. Stitt established by executive order in November 2023, recommended banning RCV in a report issued on March 31, 2024. In recommending a ban, the task force identified the potential for increased costs, voter confusion, and tabulation errors as reasons for preemptively prohibiting the use of RCV in the state.

The bill’s primary sponsor in the senate, Sen. Brent Howard (R), said, “For the security, for the validity of our elections, we need to have a uniform system.”

Rep. David Bullard (R), another supporter of the legislation, argued that RCV would undermine the will of voters, saying “we are ruled by elected officials who gain the consent to govern from those that they govern—not the person who came in second place and mysteriously becomes the winner of an election, which is ranked-choice balloting.”

Opponents of the bill countered the task force’s recommendation by arguing that a prohibition would be a violation of local control by the state government, and that RCV could reduce costs, increase civility, and allow for increased third party competition in the state.

Sen. Carri Hicks (D) opposed the bill, saying, “This is a state overreach into local elections, prohibiting, and then through a threat of civil action diminishing the opportunity of local communities to take whatever meaningful action they believe will actually increase voter participation, return civility to our election process, and potentially reduce the overall cost associated with our elections.”

Sen. Mary Boren (D), another opponent, said: “I think it’s sad when we use political narratives to take things off the table that have shown to be beneficial in democracy in America and throughout the world, but I’m not surprised.”

Oklahoma joins Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, South Dakota, and Tennessee as states that ban RCV. Besides Kentucky, each of these states banned RCV with a Republican trifecta in control of state government. In Kentucky, lawmakers overrode a veto by Gov. Andy Beshear (D) to adopt the ban.

Active bills that would ban RCV, or create a ballot question to do so, have passed one chamber of a legislature in six more states this year, including five states with Republican trifectas.

RCV is used for regular statewide elections in two states, Alaska and Maine, and for special congressional elections in Hawaii. Fourteen other states used ranked-choice voting in some local elections.

For more coverage of RCV legislation, check out our monthly report here.