The concept of ranked choice voting is gaining popularity across the United States and some organizations are working on a statewide ballot proposal to implement it in Michigan.
Most recently, Rank MI Vote — a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization seeking to amend the state’s constitution to include ranked choice voting — had petition language approved by the state Board of Canvassers and will begin collecting signatures with the goal of placing the question before Michigan voters. The group must collect 446,198 valid signatures over a six-month period to get the amendment on the November 2026 ballot.
Under ranked choice voting, voters rank candidates by preference, regardless of party affiliation. If a candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes they are declared the winner. If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Ballots that ranked the eliminated candidate as their first are then reassigned to the next highest-ranked candidate on those ballots. A new count would occur to determine whether any candidate received a majority vote. This process repeats until a candidate obtains a majority of the votes.
East Lansing, Royal Oak, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor and Ferndale have all passed ballot proposals approving ranked choice voting for city elections if the practice were to become legal in Michigan. Alaska and Maine are the only states that use ranked choice voting for statewide elections.
MFB has no current policy on the concept of ranked choice voting.
Questions to consider
- Should MFB support or oppose the concept of ranked choice voting?
Policy references
Additional resources
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