Welcome to the Tuesday, March 25, Brew.
By: Briana Ryan
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Thirteen states have now banned ranked-choice voting as municipalities decide on whether to adopt it
- Four candidates are running for two seats on the Wrightstown School Board in Wisconsin
- Indiana voters to decide in 2026 on residency requirement amendment for city and town court judges
Thirteen states have now banned ranked-choice voting as municipalities decide on whether to adopt it
So far in 2025, governors in Wyoming and West Virginia have signed legislation banning the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV). Those states now join 11 others that have banned RCV statewide. Six of those states banned RCV in 2024.
In West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) signed SB 490, while in Wyoming, Gov. Mark Gordon signed HB 165. Both governors signed the bills on March 18. The states’ new laws prohibit using RCV for any elections in either state. Neither state used RCV previously.
There are also legislative efforts to ban RCV in at least 11 states this year, including in Kansas, where SB 6 cleared a final vote on March 17 and awaits action by Gov. Laura Kelly (D), and bills that have passed one chamber in Georgia, and North Dakota.
In addition to legislation to ban RCV, at least 38 bills in 2025 legislative sessions would allow a new use of RCV, and at least 10 bills would require a new use. As of March 20, none of this legislation has passed a legislative chamber.
Lawmakers in Connecticut have introduced more legislation related to RCV (eight bills) than in any other state. Included among these bills is bipartisan-sponsored SB 951, which combines a package of recommendations made by Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D) Ranked-Choice Voting Working Group, including allowing RCV for presidential and partisan primaries and providing an option for local jurisdictions to adopt RCV for certain elections.
Now, let’s look at some news regarding RCV at the local level.
Park City is the 13th municipality in Utah to decide to use RCV for elections this year. The city council voted unanimously to adopt RCV as part of Utah’s Alternative Voting Methods Pilot Project. In this year’s legislative session, the state’s Senate declined to advance SB 127 before adjourning. The bill would have repealed the program—which is set to expire after the 2025 general election—early. Lawmakers did not consider an extension in this year’s session.
Meanwhile, in Skokie, Illinois, voters will decide on April 1 on an initiative to adopt RCV for municipal elections—the first RCV-related measure to appear on voters’ ballots in 2025. Here’s how the system would work in Skokie, which has both single-seat and multi-seat elections:
- Voters would rank candidates for mayor, clerk, and village board trustees in order of preference.
- A mayor, clerk, or district-level trustee candidate would be elected if they receive more than 50% of first-choice votes.
- A candidate for at-large trustee would be elected if they receive more than one-third of first-choice votes.
- If no candidate reaches the required threshold, vote redistribution would occur. Surplus votes from elected candidates would be partially transferred to the next-ranked candidate. If no candidate meets the threshold after transfers, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated, and their votes would be reassigned to the next-ranked candidate. This process would continue until all seats are filled.
Looking at 2024 local measures, voters approved five local measures nationwide supporting RCV and rejected one. Voters also rejected statewide measures related to RCV or similar electoral system changes in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho,Montana, Nevada, and Oregon. In Alaska, voters rejected an attempt to repeal RCV.
For a closer look at RCV, check out our comprehensive resource here. Also, make sure to read our State of Election Administration Legislation 2025 Spring Report for insights, analysis, and takeaways from all U.S. election-related legislative activity from Jan. 1 through March 11.
Four candidates are running for two seats on the Wrightstown School Board in Wisconsin
As part of our ongoing coverage of local elections across the U.S., we’re spotlighting this year’s nonpartisan general election for two at-large seats on the seven-member Wrightstown Community School District Board of Education in Wisconsin.
Incumbents Melinda Lemke and Jeff Nelson and challengers Amber Cox and Jonathan Curtis are running in the April 1 election. All four candidates will be on the same ballot, and the two who receive the most votes will win.
The election is happening against the backdrop of a recall campaign against board president Angela Hansen-Winker. Board member Rayn Warner filed the petition alleging that Hansen-Winker misused the board’s legal counsel and investigated former superintendent Andy Space without board approval. In response to the allegations, Hansen-Winker released a statement through her attorney saying, “The accusations outlined in the recall petition are demonstrably false or personal political grievances from those who hate that the voters chose change, oversight, and accountability to put our schools first, costing them their control.”
Lemke and Curtis—who are running a joint campaign—support the recall against Hansen-Winker. The Green Bay Press Gazette’s Nadia Scharf wrote that Lemke, Warner, and a third board member, Tiffany Van Vreede, “alleged Hansen-Winker relied on the district’s lawyer for personal use, racking up taxpayer-funded legal fees over twice the district’s legal budget for 2024-25.” According to Scharf, Lemke also said, “Hansen-Winker has ignored her requests to discuss requiring board approval before obtaining legal services.” Curtis said, “It’s not something that’s retaliation to Andy Space resigning there have been little pieces along the way that have led up to this starting back Angela was an awesome school board member and when she became president this year things kinda of took a turn.”
According to Scharf, Cox told the Press Gazette that “she supports the board’s decisions around former Superintendent Andy Space’s investigation and retirement, which is one of the reasons behind a recall petition filed against Hansen-Winker.” Nelson said, “When issues arise, the board is obligated to consult with attorneys, and we should listen to their guidance. I believe the board acted appropriately and effectively to get ahead of the issue.”
Now, let’s look at the candidates:
- Lemke has worked in education for 25 years.
- Nelson owns a digital marketing agency.
- Curtis is a strategic planning manager at the software company AspenTech.
- Cox is the director of the employment agency company Rose International.
The Wrightstown Community School District covers Outagamie and Brown counties in the Green Bay area of Wisconsin. During the 2023 school year, 1,302 students attended one of the district’s three schools.
To read more about this general election, click here.
Indiana voters to decide in 2026 on residency requirement amendment for city and town court judges
On Nov. 3, 2026, Indiana voters will decide on a constitutional amendment requiring city and town court judges to reside in either the county where the court is located or the bordering county closest to the court. Currently, city and town court judges must live in the city or town where the court is located.
There are 46 city courts and 27 town courts in Indiana. These courts have jurisdiction over cases involving town or city ordinances and misdemeanor offenses and infractions. Town and city court judges are attorneys in good standing who are elected in partisan elections to serve four-year terms. Judges must retire when they reach age 75.
The amendment’s sponsor, Rep. Michael Aylesworth (R), said, “Lawyers who could later serve as judges have become increasingly scarce in more rural areas of the state. With older lawyers retiring and not enough new ones to replace them, rural communities are limited when it comes to legal services.”
In Indiana, both chambers of the Legislature must pass amendments in two successive legislative sessions, with a general election between them, before they are placed on the ballot. Currently, Republicans have a 70-30 veto-proof majority in the House of Representatives and a 40-10 veto-proof majority in the Senate.
Indiana is one of nine states that require amendments to pass in two successive legislative sessions before being placed on the ballot.
The amendment was first introduced in the 2023 legislative session as House Joint Resolution 6 and passed unanimously in both chambers. It was reintroduced in the 2025 legislative session as House Joint Resolution 1. The House approved the bill 81-7 on Jan. 20. The Senate passed the bill 43-3 on March 3.
Between 1996 and 2024, Indiana voters approved all 13 amendments that appeared on the ballot. Indiana is one of seven states with a 100% amendment approval rate between 2003 and 2024.
To read more about this constitutional amendment, click here.