[2] On August 23, the DC Board of Elections held its public hearing on the formulation of the short title, summary statement, legislative text.

At this hearing, the ballot initiative's short title was changed to Ranked Choice Voting and Open the Primary Elections to Independent Voters Act of 2024.

[6] On September 13, 2023, the DC Board of Elections accepted a request for an abeyance to delay the adoption of the Initiative 83 petition until January 2024.

[7] On August 1, 2023, the DC Democratic Party and its chairman Charles E. Wilson sued D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, the DC Board of Elections, and the Government of the District of Columbia believing they erred when Initiative 83 was determined to be “proper subject matter,” and they asked the court to permanently block the initiative from being implemented.

[14] On July 14, 2021, D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson introduced the Voter Ownership, Integrity, Choice, and Equity (VOICE) Amendment Act of 2021,[15] which would have implemented ranked-choice voting in Washington, DC.

Co-introduced with a majority of D.C. Councilmembers, the bill had a hearing on November 18, 2021, where a stream of members of the D.C. Democratic State Committee testified against it.

Independent voters are functionally disenfranchised by not being allowed to participate in the primary that chooses the Democratic Party's mayoral candidate and other important races.