Blessing Introduces Bill Establishing a Consensus Voting System in Ohio

COLUMBUS—State Senator Louis W. Blessing, III (R-Colerain Township) introduced Senate Bill 395 which implements a top-three primary and consensus general election system in Ohio.

Senator Blessing issued the following statement on the legislation: 

"In the aftermath of the governor signing SB 63 into law–legislation that outlaws ranked choice voting in Ohio–many who are concerned about political extremism and money in politics are rightly feeling dejected and wondering what’s next. Though I voted in favor of SB 63, the problems ranked choice voting sought to address are very real. In a world with dwindling partisan affiliation, we can see candidates playing to their respective bases, knowing in most cases that if they win the primary they win the election. It also makes life much easier for moneyed interests to capture elections and, by extension, governments that were instituted to represent all of us. With help from some intellectual giants, I have introduced SB 395 that captures all of the benefits of ranked choice voting with none of its flaws. Weep not for ranked choice voting when we could have this better system known as consensus voting.

SB 395 starts with a top-three primary. What this means is that all candidates run in the same primary irrespective of party, with the top three advancing to the November general. To understand the mechanics, suppose there were seven candidates running for Congress: two Republican; two Democrat; one Green; one Libertarian; and one Independent. Every registered voter in the Congressional district would vote for the top three candidates to advance to the November general. If you’re a Republican, you might pick the two Republicans and the Libertarian. If you’re a Democrat, it could be the two Democrats and Green party member. It could be none, one, two, or any combination of three.

This is more powerful than you might imagine because independents make up over 70% of Ohio’s registered voters: https://www.ohiosos.gov/office/media-center/categories/press-releases/2024-05-10. No longer could major party candidates afford to ignore independents, thus there would be a gravitational pull towards speaking to all voters, rather than a given candidate’s base. Moreover, the moneyed interests could no longer count on pounding a party’s base with ads to heave their preferred candidate over the finish line. Their messaging might work with the base, but it might fail badly with independents thus costing “their guy” the election. It would also be more expensive for them everywhere because the target audience will have suddenly grown by several hundred percent with no unified ideology. I’m more than happy to watch Big Money set its cash on fire in a losing endeavor.

As for the general election, consensus voting is simply voting in three head to head match-ups. Suppose you had candidates A, B, and C. On your ballot, you’d see A vs. B; A vs. C; and B vs. C. You would select one of the two candidates for each match-up just like voting today. If a candidate wins their two match-ups they win. If each candidate wins one, then the tie is broken by looking to which candidate lost by the least in their losing match-up. That’s it. Unlike ranked-choice voting, there are no multiple rounds; difficulty programming machines; and delays on results. Voting results could be shown in real-time and would be no slower than today.

If this sounds familiar, it should. If you’ve ever participated in a March Madness Tournament Challenge, you’ve taken part in consensus voting. However, tournament brackets are vastly more complicated than consensus voting for candidates as we’re talking 68 teams through multiple rounds. Yet, as of this year the ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge reported over 26.6 million participants before the start of tournament play. For those who would tell me that voters couldn’t handle top three consensus voting because it’s complex, when these same voters can handle multiple-round, 68-team tournament, consensus voting, stop with the nonsense and admit that you’re just being disingenuous.

If you’re tired of legislative bodies spending all day, every day, on pointless theatrics then embrace change. Embrace SB 395. Embrace consensus."

Senate Bill 395 has been referred to the Senate General Government Committee for further consideration. 

###