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I was shocked at how ranked choice balloting got it's ass kicked in 2024:
Alaska: Voted to keep their ranked choice system by just 664 votes.
https://alaskabeacon.com/2024/11/20/alaska-chooses-to-keep-ranked-choice-voting-begich-defeats-peltola-unofficial-results-show/
Colorado: No 55% to 45%
https://tsscolorado.com/colorado-voters-easily-reject-ranked-choice-voting/
Idaho: No 70% to 30%
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/11/06/election-2024-idaho-proposition-1-ballot-initiative-trailing-in-early-unofficial-election-results/
Nevada: No 52.96% to 47.04%
https://ballotpedia.org/Nevada_Question_3,Top-Five_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative(2024)
Oregon: No 57.7% to 42.3%
https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2024/11/05/results-indicate-voters-opposing-measure-117-on-switch-to-ranked-choice-voting/
Portland held a ranked choice election for Mayor and City Council and saw it depress voter turnout in those races by as much as 20% compared with non-ranked choice elections on the same ballot. People just skipped those lines instead of voting.
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/12/17/why-portlands-district-1-voter-participation-lagged-other-districts-in-first-election-using-ranked-choice-voting/
Washington D.C.: Yes 72.89% to 27.11%
https://ballotpedia.org/Washington,_D.C.,_Initiative_83,Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative(November_2024)
"In 2024, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma enacted measures that banned the use of ranked choice voting" https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2024/11/14/ranked-choice-voting-faces-cloudy-future-after-election-setbacks/
I was shocked as well, I think part of it was the misinformation before the election. Another part was a lot of people just hearing about other voting systems for the first time. The common response by most people is to just vote to maintain the status quo unless they hear about something and think it can be a good thing.
Personally, I think with Ranked Robin, STAR, or Score voting on the ballot people may be more receptive to one of these alternatives. There is much less likelihood of anyone invalidating their ballots under one of these other systems.
It was also during a big election year that these votes happened on, if it was on a midterm I am curious if Alternative Voting would have struggled so much.