Kris Warner says that Joe Manchin is just "dead wrong" in criticism of WV legislators over prohibiting Ranked Choice Voting

Charleston, W.Va. – Calling former United States Senator Joe Manchin "out of touch with election integrity," WV Secretary of State Kris Warner says that the West Virginia Legislature did the right thing by prohibiting ranked choice voting from being used in the state’s elections.

Recently, in a social media post, Manchin criticized the Legislature for passing legislation in February that prohibits any municipality, county, or the state from using ranked choice voting in any election. Manchin stated that “elections in West Virginia are heading in the wrong direction” with the Legislature banning ranked choice voting “before the voting method has even been tried in West Virginia.”

Secretary Warner, the state's chief elections officer, said the former Senator is misinformed and "dead wrong" about his support for ranked choice voting.

Ranked choice voting is a controversial system in which voters rank multiple candidates for the same position in order of preference, rather than picking a single candidate for each race. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest preference votes is eliminated and those votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates based on the voter’s next preference. The process is repeated until a candidate receives a majority of the votes.

Only two states–Alaska and Maine–use ranked choice voting statewide​. And some states such as California, Massachusetts, and New York, do not explicitly prohibit ranked choice voting so the process is used in local elections, resulting in non-uniformity in administration. Many states prohibit ranked choice voting, and ballot measures that adopt the process were rejected during the 2024 General Election in Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Nevada, and Oregon. To date, ranked choice voting has not been used in any West Virginia election, and this bill was a preemptive effort to avoid special interests pushing municipalities to adopt the alternative voting method.

“Ranked choice voting reduces trust in the election process and lowers confidence in those who ultimately get elected,” Secretary Warner said. “In West Virginia, the highest vote-getter is the winner. This legislation prevents voters’ second and third-choice candidates from otherwise winning an elected seat.”

Secretary Warner said that the election process in West Virginia is “most certainly” heading in the right direction. He cited the cancellation of more than 440,000 records of dead, duplicate, out-of-state, and convicted felon voters from the state’s voter rolls. He also pointed to West Virginia’s campaign finance reporting system and transparency laws. Additionally, the Legislature passed six of Secretary Warner’s key election-related legislative initiatives including voter photo ID and prohibiting municipalities from allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections.

“It’s been a long time since Joe Manchin ran West Virginia’s elections. Ranked choice voting has been around for over 100 years. He had plenty of time as Secretary of State to push for its adoption, yet here we stand with the time-tested process of plurality, head-to-head elections,” Secretary Warner said. “That’s not going to happen under my watch. Confidence in West Virginia elections has never been higher. The West Virginia Legislature, not former elected official Joe Manchin, represent the voices of West Virginia voters.”​