Georgia Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones (R) and State Senator Randy Robertson (R-Cataula) introduced SB 355 on Tuesday to ban ranked choice voting in the state.
Jones (pictured above, left) said in a statement that ranked choice voting “is designed to cause confusion and fatigue among voters.” Allegedly “pushed by dark money groups,” Jones added it “could cause a drastic increase in the number of ballots being thrown out, disenfranchising Georgia voters.”
“Georgians deserve to have the utmost faith in their elections, and those pushing Ranked-choice voting are only hindering that faith,” said Jones, adding that he is “proud to ban this electoral disaster and work to make Georgia’s elections the safest in the nation.”
Robertson (pictured above, right) added that SB 355 “was introduced to continue the mission we started with SB 202,” the Georgia election integrity bill that sparked nationwide condemnation from Democratic activists and major corporations after it was passed in 2021. Proponents of SB 202 often note that Georgia’s number of voters grew in 2022, after the bill became law, despite claims it would depress the voter turnout.
The bill would amend existing Georgia law which governs how elections are conducted to clarify, “Ranked-choice voting shall not be used in determining the election or nomination of any candidate to any local, state, or federal elective office.” The legislation defines ranked choice voting as “a voting method that allows electors to rank candidates for an office in order of preference and has ballots cast be tabulated in multiple rounds following the elimination of a candidate until a single candidate attains a majority.”
The press release from Jones’ office noted that “those on the Left have called for the implementation of Ranked-choice voting in Georgia’s elections,” but the push to change how Georgians vote also received the support of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) in 2022.
Raffensperger recommended Georgia use ranked choice voting to end its current runoff process after the 2022 reelection of Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA), who won both of his Senate contests via runoff races.
The secretary of state told The New York Times in December 2022 that he would offer a “ranked choice instant runoff” as one of three proposals for Georgia lawmakers, explaining that “elected legislators need to have information so they can look at all the different options that they have and really see what they’re comfortable with.”
Raffensperger reiterated his call for Georgia to drop its runoff elections last month, though he did not reference his previous proposal for the state to adopt ranked choice voting.
Both Jones and Raffensperger are considered possible gubernatorial candidates to succeed Governor Brian Kemp, who is term-limited and cannot run for reelection in 2026. Jones recently released an advertisement that castigates Raffensperger for allegedly failing to show up to work.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
