Senator JD Vance on Thursday voiced confusion regarding ranked-choice voting, asserting that elections should be determined by the plurality of votes cast. The Ohio Republican, a graduate of Yale Law School, stated, “It seems to me that you have an election, the person who wins the most votes should win.”
Vance made these remarks when questioned about a recent U.S. Senate race controversy in Alaska, where residents approved ranked-choice voting in 2020. He suggested that the complexity of the system indicates it is not the "normal way" to conduct elections. "The fact that it’s so confusing to a person who pays pretty close attention to politics, I think, suggests we should do our elections in, like, the normal way, which is if you vote for a person and they get more votes for the other person, they should win,” Vance said.
Vance's comments imply a preference for a pure popular vote system. This perspective has led to comparisons with the U.S. Electoral College, which has resulted in presidential candidates winning the presidency without winning the popular vote, most recently in 2016 when Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.
Polls indicate that a majority of American voters, including those in Alaska, favor ranked-choice voting. Critics, including commentators and social media users, reacted to Vance's statements. Some pointed out the apparent contradiction with the Electoral College system, while others commented on Vance's expressed confusion about election mechanics.