Ranked-choice voting, open primaries gather enough signatures to make Nevada ballot

RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — Ranked-choice voting and open primaries could be the most significant change to the Nevada election system in decades and it's looking like voters will be a chance to weigh in on whether it becomes law.

Instead of picking just one candidate, Nevada voters may someday get the chance to rank their favorite candidates at the ballot box.

Doug Goodman, the founder of Nevadans for Election Reform, said the ballot question which would switch Nevada to an open primary and ranked-choice voting has enough signatures to qualify for the November election.

If it's passed, all voters including non-partisans would participate in an open primary. Right now, you can only vote for candidates within your affiliated party.

Proponents think this type of election would encourage candidates to moderate their positions to attract the growing population of non-partisan voters.

Under ranked-choice voting, the top five candidates from the primary would advance to the general election where voters would simply rank their top choices. Should a candidate get over 50% of the vote — they win. The candidate with the least amount of votes is eliminated. If you voted for the candidate who was eliminated, your second choice vote is counted. A process that repeats until there's a winner.

Opposition against ranked-choice voting is already mounting. A group called Let Nevadans Vote held a press conference last week voicing their concerns stating this election process will create a burden in terms of educating the community.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak is also against the proposal. His office releasing the following statement,

"We should be finding ways to continue our progress, not pushing a rushed constitutional change that would make our system more confusing, error-prone and exclusionary."

The group behind the measure plans to submit their signatures to the Nevada Secretary of State's office sometime in June. If the signatures are deemed valid, the initiative will be on the November ballot.

It would need to pass in 2022 and 2024 before becoming law for the 2026 election.