According to an invitation to a lecture on the subject, a public affairs company retained by one of the major groups behind the public’s drive to promote ranked-choice voting methods is attempting to promote the scheme to conservatives .
The Institute for Political Innovation ( IPI ) promotes “final five voting,” a form of ranked-choice voting championed by IPI Founder Katherine Gehl that pits the top five candidates in a ranked general election against each other. IPI’s other interests include plans to eliminate celebration elections and remove Congress with a dystopian-sounding “modern, design government”.
The Center for Tech and Civic Life ( CTCL), which used more than$ 300 million from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to influence the election process during the 2020 election, appear to have their headquarters in the same Chicago building. Since then, several states have outlawed money for personal elections.
In an email to The Federalist, Jonathan Baron, the leader of the government and public relations agency that frequently addresses center-right problems, wrote,” Baron is proud to work with Katherine Gehl and the Institute for Political Innovation on last five voting.”
” In support of the Final Five Voting, IPI retains our company as consultants.”  , It’s a great business and an essential initiative”, he said in a follow-up message.
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Baron Public Affairs planned a “private presentation” last week on” Bridging the Philosophical Divide: Congress and the Folks”, according to an event offer. The company “partnered” with Echelon Insights, founded in part by Republican poll Kristen Soltis Anderson, to do a research on the” important philosophical space” between Democratic voters and Republicans in Congress. The lecture was planned to focus on the results of this investigation, according to the offer, and to “discuss” how “electoral reform” is “align elected representatives with their Democratic electorate”.
” Baron advises the Institute for Political Innovation, the leading business advancing Final Five Voting”, the proposal reads.
The study’s analysis, titled” Congressional Republicans Do No Represent Republican Voters,” was just released by Baron Public Affairs. The party admitted around that IPI” sponsored” its mutual research with Echelon. The final five votes, according to the report’s recommendations, should be done to “integrate populists” in order to” close the ideological gap between Republican voters and their elected Congressmen,” according to the report.
Last five voting is not equivalent to RCV, as IPI claims because its approach combines a top-five main without RCV with a general election without RCV.
However, according to Scott Walter, chairman of the Capital Research Center, “final five voting” is just one of the many subtle terms used in ranked choice voting.
” That’s part of the scam. Having many names of things like’ top-four’ primary,’ last five,’ ‘ jungle primary,’ ‘ open primary,’ ‘ ranked choice voting,’ ‘ instant runoff,'” Walter said. This makes it simpler to get your means and causes confusion in the audience.
Baron published another, more extended record this flower called” Visions for Success: Conservative Ideas on Final Five Voting”. Last five voting, according to Jonathan Baron in an email to the Federalist, “has the potential to significantly improve the liberal movement and its ability to secure plan outcomes.”
Selling Thoughts
Jason Snead, senior director of the Honest Elections Project, called the idea that last five election would help liberals an “alarming” force to “mislead the public”.
According to Snead, “deep-pocketed liberal donors will go to great lengths to recruit conservative and Republican spokespeople for their ideas.” When ranked-choice voting is actually intended to push politics to the left, the effort is very clearly intended to create the impression that it is bipartisan.
According to Snead, the wider RCV approach is “designed to give those very liberal mega-donors even more sway over American politics than they have right now.”
Trent England, executive director of Save Our States, said he thinks Baron’s” Visions for Victory” report is” just the beginning” of a larger effort to push final five voting across the country before and after the November elections.
” I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of this,” England said, “because producing the report basically serves as a tool for getting Republicans to support it.” This is just the start of an effort to sell this to Republican lawmakers and activists.
While Baron’s” Visions for Victory” report makes it seem like “it’s the sturdy Republicans who will win” with final five voting, Walter said, advocates of the method say the same to every group.
According to Walter,” Ranked choice voting supporters are selling it as all good things to everyone.” Whatever your group is — Libertarians, anti-MAGA Republicans, conservative Republicans, Green Party — that’s what it’s going to help.'”
But Democrats use RCV to” shuffle the deck” in places where it could raise their chances at victory, according to England.
The group did not respond when The Federalist inquired how many Republican and Democrat politicians the organization had spoken to about final five voting, whether it was moving to final five voting at the state or federal level, or if other organizations were trying to do the same.
Jonathan Baron and The Federalist also had a question about the group’s pay and when their working relationship first started. He refused to answer, merely saying the group’s work “has focused on research and analysis, informed in part by conversations with scholars and thought leaders”.
Spreading Influence
America has become awash with efforts to implement various RCV techniques, including final five voting.  ,
In November, Nevada will vote on ballot Question 3, which, if passed, would implement final five voting.
According to The Nevada Independent, Gehl and her affiliates provided funding for Nevada Voters First, which aggressively promoted the final five votes in 2022. Gehl gave Nevada Voters First more than$ 6 million in 2022, while the Final Five Fund gave it close to$ 2.6 million, according to Ballotpedia. Meanwhile, individuals affiliated with the Final Five Fund — including Republican Kenneth Griffin — gave$ 4.5 million to the group, according to contribution records.  ,
Voters will consider the measure’s final version in November, which was originally approved in 2022.
According to the Nevada Independent, Nevada Voters First has since changed its name to Vote Yes on 3, Inc., which has “prebooked more than$ 9.4 million in ad buys” starting in September and leading up to Election Day.
Other states including Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon may decide on their own versions of RCV in November or the near future.
The staff writer for election integrity is Logan Washburn. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan was born and raised in rural Michigan, but he is primarily from Central Oregon.
