Shawn Griffiths
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Democratic National Committee is scheduled to meet on August 15 and there is an item on the docket—quietly being advanced by the party’s Rules & Bylaws Committee (RBC)—that bans the use of ranked choice voting in 2028.
This not only would affect presidential preference contests where the state party has elected to use the voting reform—but states and jurisdictions where voters made it clear at the ballot box that they want to use it.
First reported by FairVote Action, the proposed rule change to the party’s delegate-selection process dictates two things:
- Ranked choice voting would be prohibited in presidential primaries and caucuses; and
- In states where ranked choice voting is law, the party will only consider first-choice totals for delegate selection and allocation.
The party’s central committee does not have authority to rewrite a state’s election laws. However, in its nomination proceedings, it is not required to consider the law when it comes to delegates or even how it selects its nominee.
For example, the party can ignore the results of a primary entirely—as it has done in the past.
The same would apply to ranked choice voting. RCV has been approved for presidential primaries in Maine and for all city elections in Washington, DC. The proposed DNC rule says these places can still print ranked-choice ballots, but the party won’t consider the full results.
Either way, it is a ban on ranked choice voting.
What The DNC Is Considering
Party rules state that presidential delegates are awarded proportionally. Under the Democrats’ traditional rules, a candidate generally must receive at least 15% of the vote statewide or within a congressional district to qualify for delegates from that jurisdiction.
This is referred to in Rule 14 as the “fair reflection” of voters’ presidential preferences. Several members of the RBC offered an amendment to this rule in May that bans the use of ranked choice voting when determining delegate eligibility and allocation.
The committee revisited the change in June and allowed the restriction to advance. However, the rule is not official for the 2028 presidential election until voted on by the entire 450-person DNC body.
Shawn Griffiths
A ranked choice voting system designed around the Democratic threshold would not immediately eliminate a candidate’s chances at delegates if they don’t reach at least 15% in the first-choice total.
Candidates below this threshold can be eliminated and their ballots would be transferred to the voters’ next-ranked candidate. A voter whose first choice finishes with 8% could still help a second choice reach the delegate threshold.
Six state Democratic Parties have used ranked choice voting in their presidential nomination processes since 2020, including Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, and Wyoming. The proposed DNC rule would outright ban ranked choice voting in 5 of these states.
This includes Alaska, which uses ranked choice voting for statewide, legislative, and US House and Senate elections, but never approved an RCV law for presidential elections.
In Maine, the full function of ranked choice voting would be meaningless.
Maine expanded the use of the reform to presidential elections in 2019. Under the new rule, Democrats may still use a ranked-choice ballot in 2028, but only their first-choice will count for delegates. Their second, third, and subsequent choices would be disregarded.
DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Co-Chair Jim Roosevelt has defended the proposal by arguing that ranked choice voting is currently incompatible with the party’s proportional delegate system because conventional ranked choice voting determines a single winner.
What Roosevelt describes is only one kind of ranked choice voting. It can also consolidate support among candidates who meet a proportional threshold without awarding every delegate to the final RCV winner.
In fact, as 6 states have already used ranked choice voting in these contests, the DNC previously approved this type of arrangement.
The DNC Approved Ranked Presidential Voting Before It Moved to Ban It
Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, the RBC unanimously approved ranked choice voting plans submitted by the parties in Hawaii and Kansas. Alaska and Wyoming later used similar systems, while Nevada used ranked ballots for early participation in its caucuses.
The RBC didn’t determine then that the change was incompatible with its rules.
Instead of eliminating candidates until only one remained, these party-run contests transferred votes away from candidates who failed to reach the DNC’s 15% delegate threshold. Delegates were then divided proportionally among the candidates who remained viable.
Five Democratic contests ultimately used ranked ballots during the 2020 nomination process. For example, in Hawaii, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders both gained votes as candidates below the delegate threshold were eliminated.
And, more than 96% of participating voters had their ballot count toward a candidate who received delegates.
It is also worth noting that the proposed RCV ban was considered after reports from late 2025 indicated that DNC Chair Ken Martin and other party officials were discussing an expansion of ranked choice voting in 2028.
At the time, supporters argued that allowing backup choices could reduce negative campaigning and prevent votes from being stranded with candidates who drop out before ballots are counted. But less than a year later the RBC is moving in the opposite direction.
The question is, why? What changed from Democratic leaders determining it to be so compatible with the delegate-selection rules that they wanted to expand it to members of the RBC deciding to ban it?
State Election Results Do Not Control DNC Delegates
Control of the presidential nomination process has always belonged to the parties. It has never been controlled by the states. Even if state law allows for open primaries or ranked choice voting, the party can always ignore the results of these elections.
It can choose to kick independent voters out. Or take away a state’s ability to allocate its own delegates. It can choose which candidates appear on the ballot and if a state will even hold a presidential preference contest.
States still administer most presidential primaries. Taxpayers still pay for them. But voters have never directly nominated a presidential candidate. What they are doing is determining delegates based on the party’s rules.
It’s the party’s rules that matter. Not the state’s–which has created tension between election laws and party rule changes.
Florida and Michigan: Millions Voted, the DNC Cut Their Power
In 2008, Florida and Michigan scheduled their presidential primaries earlier than the DNC calendar allowed. Florida’s date was established by its legislature, but the national party still stripped the state of its entire convention delegation.
Michigan was penalized for the same reason.
The DNC later agreed to seat the states’ full delegations. However, each delegate received only half a vote. Their full voting power was restored immediately before the convention, after the nomination contest had effectively ended.
In other words, their voting power was restored only after the nomination was already locked in for Barack Obama.
The state elections were legal. Florida and Michigan still counted the ballots. But the vote count ended up meaning nothing in the presidential nomination process because the party ultimately decided which voters mattered.
New Hampshire: A State Primary With Zero Delegates
In 2024, New Hampshire law required the secretary of state to schedule its presidential primary at least seven days before any similar primary. The DNC adopted a calendar that placed South Carolina first and ordered New Hampshire to vote later.
This went against long-standing tradition that New Hampshire was the first-in-the-nation primary in order to give President Biden a schedule that looked better for him.
Shawn Griffiths
New Hampshire held its legally mandated January 23 primary anyway. More than 120,000 Democrats participated, and President Joe Biden won as a write-in candidate. But the DNC declared the contest unsanctioned and assigned it zero delegates.
State Democrats later conducted a separate party process that allowed the state’s delegation to be seated. In other words, the votes cast in the publicly-administered primary did not formally determine the delegates.
What This Means for Maine and Washington, DC
Maine law requires ranked choice voting in presidential primaries much like New Hampshire law requires it to be the first-in-the-nation primary. However, Maine also stipulates that the allocation of national convention delegates must follow reasonable procedures established by the party.
The Maine Democratic Party’s 2024 delegate-selection plan already blended state election law with national party rules. It called for an RCV presidential primary while allocating delegates proportionally among candidates who reached the party’s 15% threshold.
The plan also acknowledged that it required review and approval from the RBC.
The proposed 2028 rule would change which round determines whether candidates reach that threshold. Voters who participate in the presidential primary could still use ranked choice ballots, but the party would freeze the delegate calculation at the first round of tabulation.
In Washington, DC, 73% of voters approved ranked choice voting and open primaries under Initiative 83 in 2024. The RCV provision was for all city elections involving District and federal offices, which applies to presidential contests when at least 3 candidates appear on the ballot.
For a presidential primary that awards delegates proportionally, the District’s rules eliminate candidates below the political party’s delegate threshold and transfer their ballots to the voters’ next-ranked candidates.
But the law also expressly allows political parties to allocate delegates under their own party rules.
Thus, the DC Board of Elections could conduct the ranked tabulation required by District law. The Democratic Party could then allocate delegates using only first-choice totals under its national rules.
But the result could be confusing for voters. DC might certify one candidate as the RCV winner, publish rounds showing how voters’ preferences transferred, and then send a delegation based on a different calculation that ignores those transfers.
The Ballot Can Say One Thing. The Party Can Go Another Direction.
The DNC does not have to outlaw ranked choice voting in Maine or DC to neutralize it in the Democratic presidential nomination. It only has to decide that ranked results will not determine delegates.
The party has used this authority before—and in many more ways than described in this single article. It has even successfully defended its right to ignore primary results in court under the current system.
States may control when polling places open, ballot design, and how election officials tabulate votes. But the party controls whether those votes matter and to what extent they will count in the most important presidential elections.
Because delegates, not the voters, choose the candidates.