Tuesday's New Jersey primary is a textbook example of an election that would
benefit from ranked choice voting. Donate Today


Dear John,

New Jersey primary voters will pick their nominees for governor on Tuesday –
among the most-watched races of 2025. It’s an incredibly crowded field,
particularly for the Democrats, whose primary has been riddled withpersonal
attacksas six strong candidates vie for support.

Our frustrating “pick-one” system disempowers voters and leads to polarizing and
unrepresentative outcomes. A candidate could win with just a fraction of voters
behind them. Voters are stuck trying to guess the strongest candidate among they
might vote for, butthe pollsare so scattered as to be no help at all

Tuesday's New Jersey primary is a textbook example of an election that would
benefit fromranked choice voting(RCV). Within primaries, RCV would incentivize
positive campaigning, ensure winning candidates have majority support, and give
voters the freedom to vote their conscience without fear of “spoilers.”

Earlier this week,I shared some of my thoughts on how RCV could improve
primaries – in the Garden State and everywhere else – in anop-edandinterviewfor
RealClearPolitics, which you can watch below.

RANKED CHOICE VOTING EMPOWERS VOTERS AND STRENGTHENS PARTY NOMINEES
Recent research also shows how ranked choice voting in primaries is good for
candidates, voters, and parties alike:

* A just-updated Northwestern University and FairVote study found candidates
who win their primaries without majority support are 11.3 percentage points
less likely to win the general election than those who win with majority
support. RCV gives candidates that majority. The study also finds that
non-majority winners are more ideologically extreme and tend to be
lower-quality candidates on a number of different measures.
* RCV makes campaigns more positive – because candidates need to build
consensus beyond their political base, and appeal to voters who may rank
another candidate first on their ballot. A 2022 study from the Center for
Campaign Innovation found a Virginia Republican congressional nominee coming
out of an RCV primary with a +78% favorability rating, compared to just +51%
for a nominee coming out of a choose-one primary in a neighboring district.
* The Center for Campaign Innovation also found that 56% voters in the RCV
primary preferred RCV over single-choice voting – adding to a growing body of
evidence that when voters use RCV, they like it and want to keep using it.

We’ve seen these benefits in practice:

* In 2021, Virginia Republicans faced a similar situation to today’s New Jersey
Democrats – a crowded primary for governor with candidates from multiple
wings of the party. The Virginia GOP turned to ranked choice voting to solve
the problem. Glenn Youngkin was the majority winner, expanding his support
from 33% of voters’ first choices to 55% in the RCV count. Youngkin had a
unified party behind him – and he became the first Republican elected
governor of Virginia in 12 years.
* Democrats in Pennsylvania, Republicans in Indiana, and Utahns of both parties
have also used RCV to choose consensus nominees in crowded fields.

TUESDAY'S NEW JERSEY PRIMARY IS A TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE OF AN ELECTION THAT WOULD
BENEFIT FROMRANKED CHOICE VOTING
Poll after pollfinds huge majorities of voters frustrated with our political
system andlonging formore options at the ballot box. In that way, crowded
primaries like New Jersey’s – and the many we’ll see in 2026 – are a good thing.

But we also need the tools to make the most of greater choice – instead of it
causing its own problems, like driving further polarization, frustrating voters,
and making our campaign cycles ever more toxic.

Ranked choice voting allows lots of choices and majority winners to go hand in
hand. In the end, that leads to stronger nominees, more unified parties, and
most importantly, more satisfied voters. RCV would improve the New Jersey
primary, just like it has improved elections across the country.

Onward with thanks,

Meredith Sumpter,
FairVote President and CEO

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