WJI advocates for progressive change in Wisconsin’s justice system. Some of those changes can only come from legislation and who is positioned to make law. Being so, we are also committed to Wisconsin voter engagement. Whether different or supplemental electoral systems may serve voter’s interests is an open question. Some believe other systems may enhance turn voter out, de-escalate the political climate encouraging more citizen participation, and give the electorate more say as to who makes it on the ballot. This piece is the first in a short series that covers other electoral systems and their current status in Wisconsin. 

Thirty-nine percent of Wisconsin early voters cast their ballot for governor in this month’s primary election before the final field of candidates was set, according to Marquette University research and policy fellow, John Johnson.

And, according to the Associated Press, 68,343 or 8.3% of the total vote count went to candidates that had dropped out – Mandela Barnes, Sarah Rodriguez, Missy Hughes.

According to Johnson’s analysis, Milwaukee’s early voters wasted their votes at a much higher rate. 17.7% of the Milwaukee non-candidate votes came from early voting as opposed to 1.6% on election day.

In most places it’s impossible to tell who early voters voted for. While the votes are cast in advance of election day, the ballots are not touched until the polls close. Most of the time, these early votes or absentee ballots (they’re the same thing) are transferred to the voter’s ward to be counted along with the votes cast on election day. However in some larger municipalities, including Milwaukee, many absentee ballots are sent to a single central processing location, and those numbers are not subsumed into a ward’s total count.

But wasted votes are not the only criticism of this month’s chaotic primary election.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley won the nomination by just 3,800 votes, with just 39.8% of the statewide total compared to Rep. Franchesca Hong’s 38.3% share. Neither candidate touched the majority threshold.

Some have suggested that Rank Choice Voting (RCV) could fix these issues, and the last two state legislative sessions have seen efforts to bring RCV to Wisconsin voters.

Real headway was made in the 2023-2024 legislative session when a bi-partisan bill for “Final Five” voting was initiated in the Senate and made its way through public hearing.

​Final Five voting, currently used in Alaska, is a popular model pioneered by Milwaukee native Katherine Gehl.

Gehl, who authored a paper on the failure of competition in the U.S. political system, published by the Harvard Business School in 2017, also  founded the Institute for Political Innovation which advances Final Five voting nationally.

According to Gehl, Final Five is the combination of two electoral innovations. Top-five primaries, and RCV. The combination, according to Gehl, “ensures that we always elect the candidate with the broadest appeal to the most number of voters.”

Ultimately the bill died in committee and never received a vote but would have brought Final Five voting to Wisconsin for U.S. senator and U.S. representative races.

At the time, Sen. Jessie L. James (R-Thorpe), said “change is hard,” but “our current system is not working.”

And Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Eu Claire) said the proposal “has the ability to reduce partisanship, encourage cooperation, and puts the power back in the hands of the majority of population.”

The bill had ten democrat co-sponsors and eleven republican co-sponsors.

As the bi-partisan effort floundered, a group of republicans introduced a bill that would ban RCV statewide by constitutional amendment.

Then Sen. Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville) said, “there’s little evidence to suggest that adopting an alternative voting method would bring about transformative changes to our political environment,” and that banning RCV would “protect our time-tested election system from such experimentation.” Their amendment never made it out of committee.

In the most recent legislative session, a group of democratic senators introduced a bill that would allow municipalities to use rank choice voting at their discretion, but it too failed.

So what is RCV?

Last year, the American Bar Association’s Task Force for American Democracy published an in-depth analysis of on the electoral system and while it is not the formal position of the ABA, the work nevertheless concluded RCV “may help improve US democracy.”

U.S. Elections are run a few different ways. Broadly, there’s the “majority system” in which a candidate must obtain more than fifty percent of the vote in order to win, sometimes culminating in a runoff if no candidate gets the majority vote. The “top-two… or three or four” system lists all candidates irrespective of party affiliation on a single ballot and a predetermined number of those with the most votes go on to the general election. Finally, “plurality systems” are those in which the majority winner takes all  regardless of vote share.

This is what we use in Wisconsin.

Plurality systems are the most common system in the U.S., but the majority system is well established, especially in the southern states, where it’s been adopted everywhere except Florida.

RCV ranks candidates in order of preference.

If a single candidate has a majority (50% +1) they simply win. If no candidate has the majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and the count starts again.

Voters who ranked the eliminated candidate first have their votes transferred to whomever they ranked second and so on.

It’s gained considerable traction in the U.S. over the last decade. While examples like the primary race for New York City mayor, in which Zorhan Mamdami, made history as the first democratic socialists elected to that office, make headlines, this isn’t the system’s maiden voyage in U.S. elections.

Between 1915 and 1940, two-dozen municipalities across six states adopted RCV, but it fell into disfavor and repeal efforts largely erased the practice between 1940 and 1950, according to the RCV Resource Center.

“Politicians displaced by RVC, a lack of organizations amongst groups that benefited from RVC, and a political climate that turned against the parties elected through the proportional representation of RVC,” largely lead to its demise, says the RVC Resource Center.

But RCV isn’t a single thing. It, like “top-two,” can be implemented in several ways.

In New York City’s mayoral race RCV was used in the party primary to decide which democratic candidate went on to the general election.

Whereas Los Angeles recently used RCV to hold a nonpartisan “top-two” primary. That ballot included all candidates regardless of party affiliation. If any had won a simple majority, they would have been mayor. However, there was no simple majority winner so the top two candidates – who are both democrats – will now face each other during November’s general election.

According to the ABA, a significant criticism of RCV includes that it is too complex for voters to understand and use successfully. This was also a complaint listed by legislators seeking to ban it in Wisconsin. But the ABA’s analysis found comparable rates of understanding of election rules in a study between voters in RCV cities and those matched in non-RCV cities.

The ABA analysis also looked at whether RCV changes campaign behavior and noted that it has “potential to encourage more civil campaigning by motivating candidates to seek broader support, thus reducing polarization.”

“In sum,” says the analysis, “RVC is an improvement over plurality voting with clear benefits in terms of representation, campaign quality, mobilization, and turn out.” The research, also demonstrates RCV “encourages greater consensus building as well as more civil political campaigns,” according to the analysis.

Below you can find the Wisconsin legislators who have backed or attempted to block RCV. Their contact information is linked for your convenience, if you’d like to voice support or concern.

Supported Final Five
Sen. Jesse L. James (R -Thrope)
Sen. Jeff Smith (D – Eau Claire)
Sen. Robert L. Cowles (R-Green Bay)
Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D – Beloit)
Rep. Ron Tusler (R – Harrison)
Former Rep. Daniel Riemer (D – Milwaukee)
Rep. Tony Kurtz (R – Womewoc)
Rep. Deb Andraca (D – White Fish Bay)
Former Rep. Bob Donovan (R – Greenfield)
Rep. Steve Doyle (D – Onalaska)
Sen. Dora Drake (D – Milwaukee)*
Rep. Alex Joers (D – Middleton)*
Former Rep. Scott L Johnson (R – Jefferson)
Rep. Joel Kitchens (R – Sturgeon Bay)
Rep. Jeffrey Mursau (R – Crivitz)
Rep. Todd Novak (R – Dodgeville)
Former Rep. Katrina Shankland
Rep. David Steffen (R – Howard)
Rep. Lisa Subeck (D – Madison)
Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (R – River Falls)
Fromer Rep. Jimmy Anderson (D – Fitchburg)
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D – Milwaukee)
Rep. Jodi Emerson (D – Eau Claire)
Rep. Darrin Madison (D – Milwaukee)
Rep. Clinton Anderson (D – Beloit)

Supported Ban on RCV
Fromer Sen. Duey Stroebel (R – Saukville)
Sen. Steve Nass (R – Whitewater)
Former Sen. Joan Ballweg (R – Markesan)
Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R – Mosinee)
Sen. Van Wanggaard (R – Racine)
Former Rep. Ty Bodden (R – Hilbert)
Rep. Chanz Green (R – Mason)
Rep. Joy Goeben (R – Hobart)
Rep. Scott Allen (R – Waukesha)
Rep. Elijah R. Behnke (R – Town of Chase)
Former Rep. Janel Brandtjen
Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R – Oconomowoc)
Former Rep. James Edming (R – Glen Flora)
Rep. Rick Gundrum (R – Slinger)
Rep. Nate Gustafson (R – Omro)
Former Rep. Gae Magnafici
Rep. Paul Melotik (R – Grafton)
Rep. David Murphy (R – Hortonville)
Former Rep. Nik Rettinger (R – Mukwonago)
Rep. Paul Tittl (R – Manitowoc)
Rep. Nancy VanderMeer (R – Tomah)
Rep. Calvin T. Callahan (R – Tomahawk)
Former Rep. Michael Schraa (R – Oshkosh)
Former Rep. Donna Rozar
Rep. Robert Brooks (R – Saukville)
Rep. Dave Maxey (R – New Berlin)
Former Rep. Peter Schmidt (R – Bonduel)
Former Rep. Ellen Schutt (R – Clinton)
Rep. David Armstrong (R – Rice Lake)
Rep. Jerry L. O’Connor (R – Fond Du Lac)

​Supported local discretion for RCV
Sen. Chris Larson (D – Milwaukee)
Sen. Dassler-Alfheim (D – Appleton)
Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D – Milwaukee)
Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D – Beloit)
Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D – Green Bay)
Rep. Lee Sondgrass (D- Appleton)
Rep. Deb Andraca (D – White Fish Bay)
Rep. Margaret Arney (D – Wauwatosa)
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D – Milwaukee)
Rep. Ben DeSmidt (D – Kenosha)
Rep. Jodi Emerson (D – Eau Claire)
Rep. Tara Johnson (D – Town of Shelby)
Rep. Darrin Madison (D – Milwaukee)
Rep. Vincent Miresse (D – Stevens Point)
Rep. Christian Phelps (D – Eau Claire)
Rep. Ann roe (D – Janesville)
Rep. Christine Sinicki (D – Milwaukee)
Rep. Angela Stroud (D – Ashland)
Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D – Madison)
Rep. Lisa Subeck (D- Madison)
Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D – Oregon)

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