Montco Legislator's Election Bill Would Let Voters Rank Choices

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — A new bill introduced by a Montgomery County lawmaker would bring pretty significant changes to the way voting works in Pennsylvania.

The newly proposed "Ranked Choice" system would allow voters to rank their first, second, third, and further choices.

"Switching to ranked choice voting strengthens our democracy," State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17) said in announcing the bill. "This simple change enables individuals to vote for independents without the danger of their candidate becoming the spoiler, discourages negative campaigning, promotes majority support, and increases access to ballots for overseas voters."

If a candidate receives a majority of first choice votes, they would win the election. If no candidate receives a majority of available votes, then the candidate with the fewest 1st place votes is eliminated. The voters who cast ballots for the eliminated candidate would then have their second ranked choice counted.

This process is then repeated until a candidate obtains a majority of votes.

According to Leach, this "allows 3rd party voting without worrying about being a spoiler, and more accurately represents voters views."

On Wednesday, Leach issued a co-sponsorship memoranda to the state senate informing them of the bill.

It's not yet clear what kind of support there is for such a measure in the Keystone State. Maine is the only state to enact such legislation on the state level, but Leach said that 20 cities around the country have either made the switch or are int he process of doing so.