The Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing. (Susan J. Demas | Michigan Advance)

A Republican bill to ban ranked choice voting in the state of Michigan, which was introduced in the House of Representatives last month and pushed through committee Tuesday after just one hearing, was passed in the lower chamber Wednesday with opposition from the chamber’s Democrats.

House Bill 4707, sponsored by state Rep. Rachelle Smit, R-Martin, would ban the voting method if signed into law. The measure passed 55-44 with nine members of the House not voting.

Each vote affirming the passage of the bill came from a Republican member of the House, while each no vote came from the chamber’s Democrats. Eight Democrats and just one Republican – state Rep. Phill Green of Watertown Township – did not vote on the bill.

In a statement after the bill’s passage, Smit said her years as a township clerk taught her that clear, straightforward election rules were “the only way to maintain public trust.”

“Ranked Choice Voting, with its rounds of counting and reallocation, only breeds skepticism – especially when every close contest invites lawsuits and recount battles,” Smit said. “Michigan doesn’t need ballot-box gymnastics. We need integrity, clarity, and confidence, which are all qualities Ranked Choice Voting cannot deliver.”

The voting method allows voters to rank candidates for a position based on preference, rather than casting a ballot for a single candidate. It has been floated as an option to break up partisan gridlock and the grip of the two-party duopoly in American politics, but it gained further traction this year after the primary win of New York Democrat Zohran Mamdani, who became that party’s nominee for New York City mayor in an upset of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The city uses ranked choice to select its mayoral primary candidates.

Smit acknowledged during a Tuesday hearing of the House Elections Integrity Committee that the law could likely be overturned at the ballot box next year if an initiative to institute ranked choice voting is affirmed by voters.

Some Michigan cities adopted measures to introduce the method in local elections, but existing state law has kept those plans from taking root. The Rank MI Vote initiative would make that method the law of the land for all statewide and federal elections.

Still, Smit and House Republicans said it would cause chaos for clerks and introduce confusion into an elections system that Republicans have – and without evidence – accused of being rife with fraud and irregularities.

“This may sound interesting in theory – but in practice, it’s a logistical nightmare,” Smit said. “Ranked Choice Voting creates serious confusion at the ballot box. Studies and real-world elections have shown that Ranked Choice Voting disproportionately impacts minority voters and those who don’t vote in every election. Instead of empowering voters, Ranked Choice Voting risks silencing them. It doesn’t strengthen democracy; it weakens it. Ranked Choice Voting has no place in Michigan.”

Smit advocated for the bill’s passage on the House floor Wednesday, as did Republican state Rep. Ann Bollin of Brighton and state Rep. Josh Schriver of Oxford.

Rising to oppose the bill in a floor speech was Democratic state Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou of East Lansing.

“When somebody talks about banning something that is already banned, you have to ask, ‘What else is going on?'” Tsernoglou said. “I ask what those who believe rank choice voting violates these principles would say to the number of jurisdictions here in Michigan, where when left to the voters, a majority of the voters in those communities decided that they wanted to use ranked choice voting for their local elections. When communities across Michigan decide through their own ballots that they want ranked choice voting, that should be the end of the conversation.”

Tsernoglou said it was apparent to her that some of her colleagues don’t like it when voters make changes through referendums.

“Instead of respecting local democracy, they’re reaching in with heavy hands to say, ‘No, you can’t do that,'” Tsernoglou said. “This is more than overreach. It’s a flat-out rejection of our democratic values.”

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