Ranked choice voting suffered a spectacular collapse in 2024 and 2025, with voters in six states simultaneously rejecting the reform in November 2024 and 19 states now banning it outright, according to a new analysis from Capital Research. The wave of defeats has relegated what was once promoted as "the exciting new solution to all of America's polarization problems" to what the report calls "a political fad" kept alive only by a small network of wealthy donors.
The November 2024 results were devastating across the board. In deep-blue Colorado, Proposition 131 failed despite raising $14 million, making it one of the most expensive ballot measures in state history. Idaho's Proposition 1 was rejected by an astounding 70 percent of voters, while Arizona's Proposition 140 went down 41 percent to 59 percent. Nevada's Question 3, which had passed once in 2022, failed in its required second vote, proving that voters "had reversed course completely when faced with the reality of RCV," the report states. Missouri went further, approving a constitutional amendment that codified a formal ban on ranked-choice voting with nearly 70 percent support. The losses continued into 2025 and 2026, as Arkansas, Kansas, North Dakota, Wyoming, and West Virginia all passed legislation banning RCV, joining Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi from 2024. By March 2026, Indiana became the 18th state to ban RCV, followed quickly by Ohio as the 19th. Michigan's Rank MI Vote campaign failed to gather enough signatures for the 2026 ballot, and activists were later "heckled and unceremoniously expelled" from the Michigan GOP amid cries of "shame" and "communists."
The report identifies a small network of left-leaning donors as the force keeping RCV alive. Unite America, a Denver-based political action committee, gave roughly $4.7 million to support Colorado's failed Proposition 131, with additional backing from former DaVita CEO Kent Thiry, Walmart heir Ben Walton, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and Fox heiress Kathryn Murdoch. In Alaska, where RCV narrowly survived a repeal effort by less than 1,000 votes, the pro-RCV campaign raised more than $12 million compared to barely $120,000 for the opposition—a 100-to-1 funding advantage. "Even with that 100-to-1 funding advantage provided by out-of-state groups, RCV was only able to hold on by less than one percent," the report notes.
The report argues that RCV's persistence despite overwhelming voter rejection reveals a movement with "no meaningful grassroots support" that exists only because "there are donors who want it." Alaska's razor-thin victory in 2024 represents the movement's "crown jewel," but the state is putting RCV repeal back on the ballot in 2026, which the report describes as the movement's probable "last stand." Without Alaska, the analysis concludes, RCV will be "reduced to a fad that clings to the edges of urban progressive areas, low-salience local elections, and enclaves where the activist class propping up RCV can focus its resources." The only other recent win was Washington, D.C.'s Initiative 83, which passed overwhelmingly but affects only the nation's capital.
The pattern is clear across nearly every battleground: voters don't want ranked choice voting, legislators are banning it in droves, and only massive spending from out-of-state donors is keeping it barely alive in its last remaining stronghold. According to the report, the humane thing would be to "pull the plug" on what it calls a donor-funded operation masquerading as a popular political cause. With Alaska's 2026 vote looming and 19 states already blocking the system, the era of ranked choice voting as a viable reform appears to be reaching its end.