Tennessee House, Senate Prohibit Instant Runoff Voting

By Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout

February 15, 2022

Despite a new lawsuit against Tennessee over instant runoff voting, the Legislature voted Monday to prohibit the method of rank voting.

The decision came a week after a group of Memphis political activists sued Tennessee’s elections coordinator because of his efforts to stop instant runoff voting, which Shelby County voters approved 14 years ago.

Sen. Brian Kelsey, a Germantown Republican, sponsored the legislation, calling instant runoff voting a “very confusing and complex process that leads to lack of confidence” in the voting process.

The Senate voted 26-4 in favor of the legislation, which was later approved in the House by an overwhelming vote.

Democratic Sen. Sara Kyle of Memphis urged the Senate to wait until the litigation is completed before voting on the matter. She noted, “We’re just not educated” on the form of voting.

Senate Democratic Leader Jeff Yarbro of Nashville called on the Senate to give ranked choice voting an opportunity. He pointed out that red states and blue states and red cities and blue cities are embracing the method.

But other Republicans argued that Tennessee should wait and see how it works in other states before taking a risk and tarnishing Tennessee’s voting process.

An hour later, the House passed Senate Bill 1820 on a 74-19 vote after the sponsor, Rep. Kevin Vaughan, also argued that it is confusing.

“What we’ve heard from constituents is keep things simple, keep it transparent,” said Vaughan, a Collierville Republican.

He pointed toward cases in Oakland, California, where 10 recounts were required and 11% of the votes were thrown out and in New York City where the mayoral election was won with only 44% of the vote, even though a majority plus one was needed.

It was unclear whether the Legislature’s decisions Monday would have any effect on the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs, Erika Sugarmon, John Marek, Samuel Goff, Britney Thornton and Ranked Choice Tennessee filed their complaint Feb. 7 in Davidson County Chancery Court in support of the voting method that enables voters to rank candidates in elections, also called rank choice voting. This is their fourth filing to reverse decisions against instant runoff voting by Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins, a former state representative.

Instant ranked voting “promotes good government and less ideologically fractious candidates need to compete not only for a vote but also for rankings that might not be the first ranking in order to secure victory,” the lawsuit states. “This encourages candidates to communicate with and appeal to a broader swath of voters than they might otherwise.”

The group claims instant runoff voting also saves governments and candidates money by eliminating runoff elections if no candidate receives a majority of the votes.

In addition, the group contends the method gives a better opportunity to lesser-known candidates who are not funded as well and might be “dismissed” by voters as “throwing away their vote.”

Thus, it could make elections more competitive and increase voter participation, the filing claims.

Shelby County GOP Sen. Brian Kelsey called ranked choice voting “confusing and complex,” although a majority of Shelby County voters approved the method in 2008.

Memphis voters adopted a charter amendment in 2008 mandating instant runoff voting unless the Shelby County Election Commission determined its machines couldn’t handle that form of voting. In 2017, new Shelby County Administrator of Elections Linda Phillips announced instant runoff voting could be done on the county’s existing voting machines and planned to use it in the 2019 Memphis City Council election.

But Goins, “apparently alarmed by Shelby County’s attempts to implement the will of its citizens,” informed Phillips in 2017 that instant runoff voting was illegal and could not be done in Tennessee “based on strained readings and invented limitations” in Tennessee counties, according to the filing.

“Thus began this multi-year saga whereby (Goins) has attempted to thwart all attempts at judicial review of his arbitrary and capricious decision to deny Tennessee citizens their preferred method of election tabulation,” the lawsuit states. “But the coordinator has run out of excuses and delay tactics.”

The plaintiffs ask the court to review Goins’ final order and reverse it as “arbitrary and capricious.”

The Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit network of state government news sites supported by grants and a coalition of donors.