AP: Nevada voters reject ranked-choice voting, open primaries

Nevada voters denied a proposal to implement open primaries and ranked-choice voting, The Associated Press called Tuesday night.

Ballot Question 3 failed by 9 percentage points Tuesday, with 54.5 percent opposing the measure and 45.5 percent in favor.

The state reported 659,598 votes against the ballot question and 550,040 in support of Ballot Question 3 as of early Wednesday morning.

Nevada’s Ballot Question 3 was first passed by state voters in 2022 by 6 percentage points. If it had passed in this election, it would have amended the Nevada Constitution by replacing the current closed-primary system with nonpartisan open primaries and a ranked-choice, general election voting system for statewide, congressional, U.S. Senate and state legislator elections starting in 2026.

Currently, Nevada’s nonpartisan and minor-party voters cannot participate in Democratic and Republican primaries. Under Question 3, all voters — regardless of affiliation — would have participated in primaries that make all candidates from all parties go head-to-head. The top five finishers in a primary would have advanced to the general election.

In the general election, voters would have ranked their candidates in order of preference. If a candidate received more than 50 percent of the votes, that candidate would win. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated, and the second-choice candidate on those ballots would be counted instead. That process would repeat until a single candidate reached more than 50 percent support.

The question was met with opposition by both the Nevada Democratic and Republican parties, which argued it would sow confusion and lead to disenfranchised voters. Proponents of the ballot initiative said it would allow Nevada’s large share of nonpartisan voters to participate in a primary and would force candidates to appeal to the more moderate voter from the beginning.