This op-ed, penned by Ken Blackwell, was originally published in the Columbus Dispatch.
New York City’s recent Democratic mayoral primary thrust a little-known election system called ranked-choice voting into the spotlight.
This process, which allows voters to rank their top candidates in order of preference and then reallocates votes until one candidate receives a majority, has sparked passionate arguments on both sides. Here in Ohio, its potential use is under debate.
Shortly before New York’s primary, the Democracy Defense Project — a bipartisan organization created to uphold integrity and trust in elections — conducted polling in Ohio. The results showed that, despite broad interest in other election reforms, voters in our state reject ranked-choice voting by a 10-point margin, with 30% strongly opposed. And it’s not just Republicans who are concerned, though more than half oppose it. One-third of Democrats and 41% of Independents also oppose the system, while roughly one in four voters remain undecided.
Ohio may prohibit ranked choice voting
The Ohio General Assembly is currently considering bipartisan legislation to limit the use of ranked-choice voting in communities across the state. During one Senate hearing, Cuyahoga County’s elections director testified that none of the five voting systems currently certified in Ohio can run an election using ranked-choice voting, meaning new machines, new software and new taxpayer costs would likely be required should such system be adopted by local governments.
But debates around use of this system aren’t just about technology or cost. At their core, they’re about trust. Trust is the bedrock of our democracy, and if voters doubt that their ballot is being counted fairly and clearly, confidence in the entire process erodes.
For generations, Ohio’s elections have been administered by bipartisan boards of elections working to ensure the process is transparent and voters can have confidence in the outcome. DDP’s polling confirms that most Ohioans already have strong faith in our elections. That trust is a precious asset built over years but easily lost if voters feel the rules are shifting or the process is too complex.
When I served two terms as Ohio Secretary of State in the early 2000s, I championed policies to protect election integrity and ballot clarity. Over the past two decades, Ohio has made great strides building on that work, and today our state serves as a model of how bipartisan administration and transparent processes can foster voter confidence.
At the end of the day, democracy doesn’t just depend on accurate results; it depends on public confidence in those results. In Ohio, our elections are conducted with transparency and the highest standards of accountability, ensuring that when voters leave the polls, they know exactly how their ballot was counted. Moving forward, our priority must be clear: Pursue reforms that strengthen, not threaten, trust in the system.
Published: Sep 22, 2025
