Via Westport News:

Memphis voted to adopt RCV in 2008, but it’s never been employed, as a result of long-running litigation and administrative battles.

Tennessee lawmakers passed a ban Monday against instant runoff voting in elections, a move that seeks to end a long-running legal dispute between state election officials and the city of Memphis. Voters there still haven’t used the method since voting in 2008 to adopt it for city elections.

The state House and Senate, where Republicans hold supermajorities, cast votes on the same day for the proposal outlawing instant runoff voting, which is also known as ranked choice voting. Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins has ruled that the approach isn’t allowed under state law….

Chris Saxman, a former Republican Virginia state lawmaker, testified to Tennessee lawmakers that the Virginia GOP nominating convention showed ranked choice voting is “a very useful tool in the electoral toolbox.” Saxman is the executive director of Virginia FREE, which provides political information for that state’s business community….

Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, wondered what sparked the push to outlaw a voting approach that hasn’t been used in Tennessee yet.

“It’s an innovation that might work, and it might not,” Yarbro said. “But I don’t know why we would snuff that out in the crib.”