Ranked choice voting (RCV) is an election method where voters rank candisates in order of their preference (e.g., John is my first choice, Sharon is my second choice, and Dylan is my third choice, and so on). If a candidate (e.g., Sharon) receives more than 50 percent of votes cast that candidate wins - much as you would see in a majority election.
That said, if there is no majority winner after counting the first choices (i.e, none of the candidates got more than 50 percent of votes cast), the race is then decided by an instant runoff.
In the instant runoff, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated from the race. Voters who ranked the now eliminated candidates as their first choice have their second choice get their vote.
Current Users of RCV
Why Should We Use Ranked Choice Voting?
- When voters rank candidates in order of preference, their ballots have more power to influence the outcome of an election.
- Voters can still vote their conscience and don't need to feel their vote was wasted or acted as a "spoiler" for a second favorite candidate
- RCV elimimates the need for unnecessary primary and runoff elections
- Fewer elections mean fewer dollars spent
- Increased civility in campaings
- Voters report friendler, less divisive campaigns in states using RCV
- Promoting fair representation
- RCV helps make elections fairer and more reflective in every district
- Ends the cycle of gerrymandering and creates competitive elections in which evry vote counts
- Avoids vote-splitting and weak plurality results
- Election results represent the choices made by more than 50% of the voters - many times, much more than half
- Military and overseas voters can vote in the first round and then rank their backup candidates
- In runoffs, the ranked ballot counts for whichever candidate the overseas voter ranked highest
- Removes risk of ballot mailing delays exceeding runoff election time limits
RCV, Majority, and Plurality Voting
How is RCV Different to How We Elect People Now?
Most elections in the U.S are conducted using plurality or majority voting - methods described below where a given candidate with the highest number of votes wins. These "wins" often do not reflect the will of the people or the winner having received the majority of votes. In a ranked-choice voting system, it works differently. The winning candidate almost always ends up with a majority of votes - even if some portion of the electorate selected him or her as a second or third choice.
Plurality Voting: Plurality voting is an electoral process where voters choose their preferred candidate and the candidate getting the most votes wins the election. For example : if there are four candidates on the ballot, only one of them needs only to get more than 25 percent of the votes to win the election.
Majority Voting: Majority voting is when the candidate seeking office needs to get more votes than all the other candidates combined to win. For example: if there are theree candidates, the winner must receive more than 66 percent of the vote. In this case, if none of the three get a majority of votes, the election goes to a runoff between the two candidates receiving the most amount of votes. Those two then compete in a new election where one of them must receive more than 50 percent of the votes cast to win.
Getting RCV in Your State
How Can We Get RCV In our State?
Ranked choice voting elections start with an authorizing statute / law. Depending upon the jurisdiction, this may be done by a bill in the state's legislature, by ballot initiative, by charter amendment, or by resolution. When developing the language ranked choice voting legislation, initiatives, amendments, or resolutions, it is recommended that the language be broadly written to be flexible enough to change with the times.
For example, some laws include language specific to a particular type of voting equipment or a set number of rankings. That sort of language can limit the ability for elections to be administrated as voting equipment evolves. To learn more about how you can adopt RCV and to see example language from ballot initatives, charter amendments, ordinances and bills, and resolutions, check out the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center's Legislation page at: https://www.rcvresources.org/legislation
Discovering More About RCV
RCV Sources and Resources
https://www.rcvresources.org/why-adopt-rcv
https://lwvpdx.org/how-ranked-choice-voting-works
https://hls.harvard.edu/today/ranked-choice-voting-explained
https://archive3.fairvote.org/reforms/instant-runoff-voting/irv-and-the-status-quo/comparing-irv-with-plurality-voting
https://electionbuddy.com/features/voting-systems/plurality-voting/
https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting
https://campaignlegal.org/democracyu/accountability/ranked-choice-voting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcirfYTZDsc
The USEP would also like to replace one winner districts with larger multi-member winner districts. Moreover, the party would also like to reform the state winner take all POTUS Electoral College votes with a proportional voting method used by Thomas Jefferson to fill the original House of Representatives and which would closer reflect a popular vote as outlined here.
Want to lean more? Want to become an Equalitarian? Want to know how to help our efforts? Visit the USEP website at: https://www.usep.net