West Virginia senators voted to ban ranked choice voting, which isn’t happening in the state.

The full Senate voted 31-2 with one absence to pass SB490, which says “No state, county, or local elections office may use ranked choice voting or instant runoff voting to conduct an election or nomination of any candidate in this state for any local government, statewide, or federal elective office.”

It goes on to say, “Any existing or future ordinance enacted or adopted by a county, a municipality, or any other local government entity which is in conflict with this section is void.”

The bill now goes to the House of Delegates, which has been advancing its own version, HB2683 .

The system uses voters’ rankings of candidates to choose the winner.

Typically, voters would rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate earns more than half of the initial votes, they are declared the winner.

But if no one wins a majority, an instant runoff would occur. The candidate with the least votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as their top choice would have their votes bumped to their next preference. That repeats until a somebody achieves a majority.

T.J. Meadows: Why are legislators moving to ban ranked-choice voting?

Senator Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, spoke in favor of banning the system, comparing it to an athletic contest that could be won on unorthodox grounds.

For example, Oliverio said, the election scenario would be as if West Virginia University’s football team were playing rivals University of Pittsburgh. He described a dramatic comeback victory by the Mountaineers. But he said in this scenario, Pitt could be declared the winner by virtue of carrying the lead through the first three quarters.

“That should help you understand ranked choice voting,” Oliverio said. “We live in a society where we have winners and losers, and this bill just restates that.”

Senator Joey Garcia, D-Marion, said that analogy wasn’t quite right. Ranked choice voting, he said, would be more like if there were yet another team competing in that game, like Virginia Tech.

“What we have had in a number of different elections are multiple — five, six, seven people on the ballot. Now somebody can get 50% of the vote plus one; you win that election. You win that election. That’s all that you need in ranked choice voting,” Garcia said.

“But that’s like saying ‘Let’s put the Hokies in there with the Mountaineers, with the Panthers.'”

In an election, particularly primaries, some candidates can emerge as the winner with less than 50% of the vote.

“And I’ve also heard from people that don’t like, maybe they don’t like any of the people that they’re voting for — but they have their preferences and they say ‘Well, you know what I really like what this person stands for, but they have no shot’ and in those situations, I think ranked choice voting is kind of an interesting idea.

“And that lends itself to something I this body, in my opinion needs: moderation.”

Speaking on MetroNews’ “Talkline” this week, Julie Archer of the West Virginia Citizens Action Group questioned why the Legislature would ban a voting practice that isn’t actually being used.

“We support ranked choice voting. We think it’s extreme to ban something that’s not even currently being used in West Virginia,” said Archer, who is deputy director of the organization.

“The main reason we would support it is that it allows more voters to elect the candidates of their choice, and we actually would have winners of our elections that have the support of a majority of voters instead of folks getting elected by a plurality.”