Yesterday, the Republican Party in the Virgin Islands became the first
Republican state or territorial party to use ranked choice voting in its
presidential primary! Donate Today! Dear John,

Yesterday, the Republican Party in the Virgin Islands became the first
Republican state or territorial party to useranked choice voting(RCV) in its
presidential primary!

The third-in-the-nation primary placednational attentionon RCV – like thisCBS
Newsstory featuring FairVote, the Virgin Islands Republican Party executive
director, and Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State all speaking positively
about the reform.

Donald Trump defeated Nikki Haley, 74%-26%, in the ranked choice voting count.
See an interactive display of the unofficial resultshere, and full analysishere.

RCV improved the Virgin Islands presidential primary by preventing “zombie
votes” – votes for candidates who had already dropped out. 11% of Virgin Islands
voters picked a withdrawn candidate – like Ron DeSantis or Chris Christie – as
their first choice. Thanks to RCV, 74% of those voters still had their vote
count for an active candidate.

Compare that to New Hampshire’s primary last month, whereover 5,500 Republicans
saw their votes “wasted” on dropped-out candidates whose names were still on the
ballot.

Additionally, if more states and territories used RCV, more candidates would’ve
been able to stay in this year’s presidential race – allowing voters to decide
among the full field, instead of party elites pushing candidates out lest they
“play spoiler” or “split the vote.” With ranked choice voting, voters can
identify a consensus, majority nominee in a multi-candidate field.

The Virgin Islands GOP primary is just the latest use of RCV for nominations.
Republicans inVirginia,Utah, andIndianahave all used RCV in recent years to
nominate winning candidates in key races. Democrats infive statesused RCV in
their 2020 presidential primaries; voters engaged at high rates, and no votes
were wasted.

As RCV grows in popularity, we expect even more places to follow the Virgin
Islands’ lead by using it. To help make that happen,join an RCV groupin your
state today!


Onwards,
Deb Otis
FairVote Research and Policy Director


PS. Yesterday was a big news day for RCV, even outside the Virgin Islands. Check
out this story on RCV’s momentum in the states from theNew York Times!

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