Senate Republicans are seeking to ban ranked-choice voting in Iowa, although no federal, state or local elections currently use the voting method.
Senators voted 34-13 along party lines on Wednesday to pass Senate File 459, sending it to the Iowa House for consideration.
The legislation says any statewide or local government could not conduct elections using ranked-choice voting, sometimes known as instant runoff voting, which involves ranking each candidate in order of preference and reallocating votes to a voter’s second choice if their first choice fails to win a majority.
“In my view, ranked-choice voting makes it harder to vote,” said Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Pella. “It makes the votes harder to count and it’s much harder to ensure a transparent and accountable democratic process. And in 2025 with the heightened expectations and concerns about the voting process, I think this is an excellent proposal.”
Rozenboom said the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, which sponsored the bill, says Iowa’s current tabulators are not equipped to tally votes cast using a ranked-choice method.
Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, said Iowa’s current winner-take-all election system “breeds division and only fuels partisanship and political attacks.” She tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to allow ranked-choice voting in local elections.
“Ranked-choice voting gives the people what they want: more choices,” she said. “It is possible to have multiple candidates, and no one is a spoiler. Instead, we see increased voter participation and much higher voter satisfaction because all candidates are considered and all the votes count. The winner who comes out on top actually represents the will of the people.”
Some states, including Alaska and Maine, use ranked-choice voting for all their state and federal elections. Several other states allow the city and county governments to use the voting method in local elections. Eleven states, all led by Republicans, already ban ranked-choice voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, has called for Iowa to implement ranked-choice voting, saying it would help lessen divisiveness and partisanship in politics.
“I’m sick of having two choices, and I think most other people are too,” Sand said last year on an episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS. “I’m sick of the meanness, the anger, the exaggeration of people’s political positions, the denigration of people.”
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.
