Introduction On Tuesday voters will decide whether to change Missouri law to prohibit ranked-choice voting and change the language in the Missouri Constitution to say that “only” U.S. Citizens can vote rather than “all”. Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank all the candidates in order of preference. The way it works: A candidate wins if they receive the majority of the first-choice votes wins the election. If no candidate wins the majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Voters with an eliminated candidate as their top choice have their votes redistributed to their second-choice. The process repeats until one candidate has earned a majority of the revised first-choice votes. Transcript Nick Haines [Host, Week in Review]: While immigration may not be directly on the ballot this year, Missouri is 1 of 8 states that will vote on a constitutional amendment declaring that only American citizens can vote.  [Beginning of clip from the Presidential Debate]  Donald Trump [Republican Presidential Nominee]: Our elections are bad. These illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote.  Nick Haines:  Donald Trump has made it a big campaign issue, yet we keep hearing in news reports that federal law already prohibits non-citizens from voting. So, why is this considered necessary, Matthew?   Matthew Harris [Park University]: I mean I don’t think it is necessary. To me, this piece of the amendment is eye candy for some of the stuff that comes later about rank choice voting and it’s a Republican attempt to have partison control of elections. It’s sort of similar to the repeal of Clean Missouri a few years ago. If you have a little eye candy to draw in the voters, draw in the base, and then the stuff you really want is further down.   Nick Haines: We’re going to talk a little bit about those meaty parts of this amendment, but you have to read further down to see. Let me just stick with the citizen voting part of this. Other than saying you have to check a box when you register to say “I am a U.S. citizen,” who’s checking? I mean, do we have local authorities doing all of it? Going to people’s home and hiring investigators to see if people are lying or not?   Meg Cunningham [The Beacon]: No, we don’t have that.   Nick Haines: So, it’s on a trust system?   Meg Cunningham: Yeah, it’s not included in the amendment. I would also note that our wonderful election officials who do very thankless work already struggle with staffing when putting and election on. This would be an additional burden on them.  Nick Haines: But we are seeing non-citizens being allowed to vote in local and state elections. I see an increasing number of places where that is happening in Washington D.C., Vermont and California. So, if this passed, it would stop, for instance in Kansas City, non-citizens if there was an effort made in the future to vote for mayor or perhaps your local school board.   Beth Vonnahme [UMKC Political Scientist]: Perhaps but the Missouri constitution specifically says, “citizens” so it’s not just used know, Matthew referenced federal law but it’s both federal law and Missouri law that it’s citizens who have the ability to vote in state wide elections. Yes, this would perhaps make it even harder, but I also want to pick up on something that was said earlier. When you submit a voter registration form, those forms are in fact checked. So, if you put on there that you are a citizen and you are in fact not a citizen, state officials check all kinds of databases. Federal databases like the Social Security Administration and state databases like the DMV. So, they are in fact checked even though they may not have all of the staffing that they desire they do go through some checking.  Nick Haines: Now, while voters may look at the first line and make their choice the crucial change on Amendment 7 as Matt already mentioned is buried further down in the lengthy ballot questions. It prohibits some of the major election reforms that are gaining steam in states across the country like rank choice voting which is now being used in Alaska and Maine and could be approved by voters in Nevada this November.   Clueless about what Rank Choice Voting is? Well, here’s a quick primer.  [Begin Rank Choice Voting Explainer]  Man’s Voice: Politics is tearing us apart, and it’s because elections aren’t working for most of us. Here’s why.  In the U.S., each of us can vote for the candidate we like the most, but whenever more than 2 candidates are running to win one seat it’s possible for most voters to hate whoever wins. Because of this split vote, politicians can win the will of most voters and still win.  Rank Choice Voters give you the freedom to select a backup choice to prevent that from happening.   Let’s say a group used rank choice voting to decide what to eat for dinner tonight. Each voter selects their favorite dish, but also has the option to choose back up dishes. If one food receives more than half of the votes it wins, just like in any other election, but let’s get to dessert where the competition is more fierce. What if no ice cream flavor has more then 50% of the vote? Under a normal race, vanilla would win even though the majority of voters didn’t pick it. With rank choice voting, the flavor with the fewest is eliminated and voters who chose that flavor as number one would have their votes count for their next choice. Everyone get a say. No one wastes their vote, and the winner is the flavor that the largest number of people agreed upon. That’s ranked choice voting. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.  [End of Explainer]  Nick Haines: So, if you like the idea of this system, you may want to vote no on Amendment 7 because election reforms like this one, it would ban them. Now, if you find the whole thing confusing, silly, even dangerous then you want to vote yes, Matthew?  Matthew Harris: So, I think there are some proponents of rank choice voting. I’ll say things like it opens people up to feel like they’re free to vote for a 3rd party candidate and not feel like they’re throwing their vote away. I would add, rank choice voting can be incredibly confusing and there can be some counterintuitive effects.   Nick Haines: Now, if these are such fabulous systems, Beth. Why is it that some of the places that have adopted this, including Alaska, I see they got it back on the ballot this November. Alaska is going to be looking to repeal the rank choice voting system they already put in place. So, is it not working the way they think?  Beth Vonnahme: Well, I think there are some downsides as Matthew pointed out in the way that it actually operates, but the reality is that these are political reasons. Political parties don’t like uncertainty and rank choice voting creates uncertainty. It pits, potentially, Republicans against Republicans and Democrats against Democrats and that makes people uncomfortable. Instead of voting against it or not bringing it forth, they’re going to ban it entirely before it even has a chance.  [End Transcript] This video is part of a series of shorts focused on supporting voters at the polls this November. You can see all the videos in the series and stream additional election coverage from Kansas City PBS at kansascitypbs.org/ontheballot. The post On the Ballot | Ranked-Choice Voting first appeared on Flatland.