Nevada Citizen Initiative Takes Step Toward Ranked Choice Voting & Open Primaries

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Yes on 3 Nevada - Ballot initiative description
BallotPedia - Nevada Question 3, Top-Five Ranked Choice Voting Initiative (2022)
Nevada Current - Question 3: Election reform proposal ekes out victory, will return in 2024
Vox - The plan to save America by killing the partisan primary
Nevada Current - Question 3 is hated by many and funded by rich out-of-state reformers, but…
Maybe that’s a selling point

Groups Taking Action:

Vote Nevada, Yes on 3 NV

Today's Script:  (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time) 

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Today, we’re in Nevada, where a citizen initiative passed November 8th, clearing its first hurdle to add ranked choice voting and open primaries to the Nevada constitution.

Question 3 won by a slim margin, with 52.7%, in the first of two referendum votes it needs to modify the Nevada state constitution.   The second vote will be in the 2024 general election.

Question 3 would change the current closed primary system which has separate ballots for Democrats and Republicans, and create an “open primary” with one primary ballot, similar to a new system in Alaska.  The system would apply to the statewide races, and to U.S. House & Senate, but not the Presidential election.

In the proposed system, the five candidates for each position with the highest Primary election vote totals would advance.   In the General election, ranked choice voting would be used, with voters ranking their preferences.   If no candidate wins a simple 50% majority of the vote, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. People who voted for that candidate as their first choice would have their votes redistributed to their next choice

What are the advantages?  An open primary diminishes “the race to the bottom” that a closed primary often causes, and ranked choice allows voters to support their favorite candidate without compromising for electability reasons.

We have links to articles and groups taking action  at  AmericanDemocracyMinute.org  For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.