District 12 Senator Amy Sinclair

Senate File 459 was passed by the Iowa Senate last week regarding a ban on rank-choice voting in local elections.

District 12 Senator Amy Sinclair says rank-choice voting is when voters put all the candidates for an office in a list of who they most want elected to least, basically giving a first choice, second choice, etc. Sinclair tells Raccoon Valley Radio why the Senate passed the bill that would ban that system of voting.

“You might end up with a person who the majority of folks didn’t even want as their number one choice being elected into that position just by virtue of how the system works. It’s complicated. It’s complex. Most voters don’t understand it and it is not a system that works well with most of our elections at this time.”

Sinclair mentions that the rank-choice system also doesn’t work with any of the current software used for elections in the state, which was another reason that the decision to pass the bill was made.