Final Five Voting Will Strengthen Democracy

Vote here sign outside a Milwaukee polling place. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

AB 563/SB528 are companion bills to institute a Final Five Voting system for U.S. Senate and U.S. House races in Wisconsin. The system could greatly strengthen democracy in Wisconsin.

Here’s how it works: Voters can choose any candidate, regardless of party, during the primary election. The five candidates who receive the most votes would advance to the general election, where voters would rank the candidates 1—5. Ranking a candidate as #1 would mean the voter views this candidate as the most preferred choice and a candidate ranked #5 would be the least preferred choice.

If a candidate gets over 50% of the vote, the election is over. If no candidate gets over 50%, an instant runoff is triggered. The candidate with the least amount of 1st choice votes would be eliminated. Voters who chose the candidate that is eliminated as their 1st choice would have their vote transferred to their 2nd choice. If the voters 2nd choice candidate is eliminated, their vote would be transferred to their 3rd choice. This process continues until there are two candidates.

The goal is to have one candidate that achieves over 50% with a combination of first-choice and reallocated preference votes.

For a write-in candidate, a voter can add that candidate to their ballot and would rank them with the other candidates using the same 1—5 ranking system but, one of the original five candidates would not have a ranking because of the addition of a write-in candidate.

A voter need not use all their rankings when casting a ballot. They could choose to rank only one candidate. And a voter can only rank up to five candidates in total.

A voter cannot give the same rank to more than one candidate. In that case, the ballot for that round is considered an overvote and not counted in that round and subsequent rounds.

If passed, this bill would take effect during the 2024 partisan primary and general election later this year.

I applaud the legislators who drafted and co-sponsored this bill. Because in this hyper-partisan world that we live in, bipartisanship seems to be dying a slow and painful death. The electorate is tired of dysfunction and incivility when it comes to our elected officials.

The average Wisconsinite does not feel their voice matters as much today because of our current electoral system where big money often dictates the outcome of elections and where voters are forced to vote on candidates based upon ultimatums.

Election season is riddled with toxicity. Our current primary system in Wisconsin incentivizes candidates to put forth scorched earth tactics to win their primary.

Primaries are too often the place where elections are won because of the lack of competitive districts. Additionally, we see candidates leaning into hyper-partisan rhetoric to separate themselves from other candidates fighting to win the primary.

And once the primary field is clear of similarly situated candidates, the general election is often a showdown between two candidates at completely different ends of the political spectrum.

Life, like elections, is not always black and white. Most voters do not agree 100% on the issues with the candidate they ultimately support. We do not have to achieve perfection to significantly improve our elections in Wisconsin.

Voters should be given more choice and more power when it comes to deciding who will represent them in office. Voters deserve the opportunity to vote for candidates that are closer to their ideological beliefs than being forced to vote strictly along party lines.

If enacted, AB 563/SB 528 would foster a new era of voting in Wisconsin where the power is put back into the voters’ hands.

Major political parties and big money entities would have less influence because our federal elections for U.S. Senate and House would not be tailored to one candidate from either the Republican or Democratic party surviving their respective primaries.

Big money interests would not be able to latch on to a candidate in the same fashion they have under our current system because the general election field would no longer be a binary choice.

No one wants to run for office when you have to continuously fundraise instead of talk on the issues. Which is why we need campaign finance reform.

Listening to the electorate about the issues that are important to the people becomes far more important than falling in line with a political party to receive their money and resources.

The five candidates, from any political party, with the most votes would move on to the general election. There would be less incentive for candidates to run hostile campaigns toward another campaign because it may leave a lasting memory in a voter’s mind when they rank their preferred candidates on their ballot in the general election.

And this bill guarantees that no candidate can win without receiving more than 50% of the vote in the general election.

Competitive races lead to better candidates and better candidates often result in better public policy. Wisconsinites deserve candidates that represent the will of the people, and a Final Five system is a better way to achieve that.

Nick Ramos is executive director of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

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Related Legislation: AB 563