New Jerseyans aren’t ready to support ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference to force the winner of an election to get a majority, a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released this morning shows.
Just 37% of state residents want ranked choice voting in elections, while 42% oppose it.
Ranked choice voting does best among Democrats (43%-34%), but is upside-down among Republicans (23%-58%) and independents (39%-45%). It does well among young people – 43%-32% among New Jersey residents between the ages of 18 and 30 — but poorly among those ages 65 and older (24%-64%).
“Voters in New Jersey aren’t happy with the direction of the state and think our politicians are corrupt,” said FDU Government and Politics professor Dan Cassino, the poll director. “But that doesn’t mean that they want the system to change in a way that could hurt their parties.”
Ranked choice is used in New York City elections, and in statewide elections in Alaska and Maine.
State Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick) has been a longtime advocate of ranked choice voting and is the prime sponsor of legislation to use the system in New Jersey: one for presidential primary and general elections, and one for municipal and school board elections.
Gov. Phil Murphy said in 2021 that he was open to ranked choice voting, but it wasn’t a priority for him.
“In places where ranked choice voting has been adopted, the major political parties have pushed back hard,” Cassino stated. “Absent overwhelming public support, there’s no way legislators are going to do something that hurts their own parties, and that support just isn’t there.”
The FDU poll was conducted between October 6-14 with a sample size of 813 adult New Jersey residents and a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.
