As political polarization continues to rise across the United States, a nonprofit group in Iowa is pushing for solutions to reduce partisan division.
Better Ballot Iowa, founded in 2020, advocates for ranked-choice voting: A system that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference rather than choosing just one.
In a ranked-choice voting system, if a candidate receives at least 50% of the first-place votes, they win the election. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, an instant runoff election is held with the last-place candidate eliminated. The process repeats until a candidate wins by a majority.
Matthew Wetstein, an Iowa State University physics professor and board president of Better Ballot Iowa, said ranked-choice voting would result in a more productive government, more competitive elections and increased opportunities for third-party candidates to win.
“85% of the Iowa House races were so lopsided for one party or the other that I could tell you the outcome months in advance,” Wetstein said. “There’s one small set of upgrades that we could focus on in the election system that could make your vote more effective and make it so politicians have to listen.”
Wetstein added that Better Ballot Iowa’s mission statement is to bring voters together by working to improve the current political system.
A 2023 Pew Research study found that 65% of Americans say they often feel exhausted when thinking about politics because of partisan divisions.
“We were sick of the direction that politics is going in, which is getting very dark and divisive,” Wetstein said. “We figured that it would be good to focus on solving a problem that voters across the spectrum could agree on and point the finger at the system rather than a group of people.”
Additionally, Better Ballot Iowa has a club at Iowa State called Students for a Better Ballot.
Wetstein said the student organization is currently looking for new members and will have a table outside Parks Library from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 4 to recruit.
For Avrom Bailey, a junior in mechanical engineering, joining Students for a Better Ballot was a no-brainer.
“I’m not very quick to hate either side or say that they’re evil, as opposed to misled,” Bailey said. “I knew about ranked-choice voting before I heard of this organization. The very second I knew there was something on campus, I was like, ‘Sign me up.’”
Bailey believes that social media plays a factor in the negativity surrounding politics, and his experience scrolling through TikTok inspired him to advocate for a solution.
“I was doomscrolling through a side of TikTok that is very negative about politics,” Bailey said. “It’s so easy for it to ruin your whole night, keep you up longer than you should be and make you think the world is ending.”
Members of Better Ballot Iowa take part in a variety of outreach events, including an interactive booth at the Iowa State Fair.
“When we were at the State Fair this year, we had voters rank their sentiment about politics, and 85% of them ranked politics at a four or below on a scale of 10,” Wetstein said. “Voters are really frustrated, and we tell them what we’re trying to do.”
Bailey said that voters at the State Fair showed curiosity about Better Ballot Iowa’s booth, especially after hearing about the group’s broad coalition.
“The second they hear we’re nonpartisan, they usually respond with curiosity because we don’t have an agenda,” Bailey said. “People who already know about ranked-choice voting and already love it are like, ‘Just hand me the paper.’”
Bailey said some voters approached the booth with skepticism and asked questions about ranked-choice voting.
Wetstein said that the best arguments he has heard against ranked-choice voting are concerns of “vote splitting,” where the most popular candidate may not win because of a third-party candidate “spoiling” the race.
“Like any voting system, you can have an outcome where the most popular candidate does not win,” Wetstein said. “The reason we like ranked-choice voting is because we have 20 years of data on that, and we know that the hypotheticals that critics raise barely ever happen.”
Better Ballot Iowa recently held an advocacy event at the Capitol, where they spoke to roughly 20 legislators, gubernatorial candidates and other staff members in an effort to gain more support for ranked-choice voting.
In 2025, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed House File 954, which sets specific guidelines for Iowa elections, including the prohibition of ranked-choice voting and a requirement for candidates to receive at least 10% of the general election vote in order to gain “party status.”
Legislators who voted for HF 954 argued that the bill would strengthen election security in Iowa because of guidance added by Secretary of State Paul Pate that would increase oversight of registered voters’ citizenship status.
Pate’s provisions were based on alleged findings prior to the 2024 election that flagged more than 2,000 registered voters as “potential noncitizens.” Pate said that nearly 13% of those flagged individuals were noncitizens.
Public remarks by supporters of HF 954 did not target ranked-choice voting or party status as their primary concern, and they shared a stance similar to Pate’s, although the bill’s language primarily bans ranked-choice voting.
Wetstein said that the purpose of ranked-choice voting is to allow for more candidates from more parties in elections, arguing that beneficiaries of the two-party system do not want more competition and have an interest in opposing the voting system.
“The two sides in those races are always competing with each other, but they both agree that they don’t want anybody else competing,” Wetstein said. “Groups that benefit from a divide and conquer strategy are terrified of an option that would give voters control over more choices.”
Despite the passing of HF 954, Wetstein remains optimistic because of the number of legislators who opposed the ranked-choice voting ban.
According to Iowa Capital Dispatch, Rep. Austin Baeth (D-District 36) introduced an amendment to allow local governments to hold elections with ranked-choice voting in order to combat “horrible, hyperpartisan polarization” of politics.
Although Baeth’s amendment failed, Wetstein said that 44 legislators supported the measure, and ranked-choice voting is publicly supported by State Auditor Rob Sand.
“We went from zero official support to 44 people on record defending ranked-choice voting and we only needed 77 legislators to pass this,” Wetstein said. “We are more than halfway there, with at least one gubernatorial candidate running on a lot of the same structural issues.”
Wetstein said Better Ballot Iowa has also discussed ranked-choice voting support with Republican gubernatorial candidates.
Wetstein said that students who want to reach out to the club can email the organization at [email protected].