Fast and Curious: Ranked Choice Voting Picks Up Steam

BallotReady
Jul 20, 2017 · 4 min read

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Photo Credits: Pete Vankevich[/caption]

In the 2016 general election, voters in the state of Maine approved a ballot measure mandating use of Ranked Choice Voting beginning January 1st, 2018 for certain federal and state officers. Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) allows you to rank candidates; if your first choice doesn’t win, your second choice might. The Maine Supreme Court, early this year, released a non-binding advisory opinion stating that RCV is unconstitutional after interpreting the state constitution to mean that a plurality of votes (the most votes) is enough to win an election to office. The future is uncertain as lawmakers in Maine have struggled to decide on the status of RCV in the state.

What is Ranked Choice Voting?

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Have you ever felt lukewarm about a candidate? You weren’t sure if you could vote for them, but weren’t opposed to them, either? Imagine heading to the polls tasked with choosing more than just a single candidate for each office. Using RCV, voters rank all the candidates contending for an office based on their preference, allowing for instant runoffs.

Ranked choice voting is a process where voters rank their preference for each candidate. The candidate you prefer most receives a score of ‘1’, the next a ‘2,’ and so on down your ballot. If a candidate receives a majority after tallying all of the first place votes, they win. However, if no candidate receives a majority, the candidate with the fewest first place votes is removed. For people whose first choice is then eliminated, their second choice becomes their first choice. This process continues until one candidate has a majority and is the winner.

Advantages and Drawbacks

Advocates for RCV argue that it forces candidates to appeal to a broader audience. The method has also been proven to decrease the occurrence of a spoiler effect wherein two similar candidates split votes, allowing an underdog candidate to win.

Opponents argue that RCV is unnecessarily complex. Ranking choices may lead to decreased turnout and increased likelihoods of counting errors. RCV could also favor candidates sitting in the middle of the political spectrum as they appeal to a wider audience and can therefore draw from both Republican and Democratic voters. Advocates of the method see this as a positive cure to the ideological extremities prevalent in our politics today.

RCV also has implementation issues. Replacing traditional vote counting machines with proper equipment can be expensive, and the longer ballots needed to rank preferences can lead to higher printing costs. Currently, RCV has only been piloted in cities, because of their smaller geographic area and uniform voting equipment.

Where Can I Find It?

Ranked choice voting has taken hold sporadically in the United States, most often in mid-sized cities throughout the country. Currently, RCV is used for local elections in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro in California, Takoma Park in Maryland, Basalt and Telluride in Colorado, Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota, Cambridge in Massachusetts and Portland in Maine. RCV is also used in over 50 U.S. colleges and universities to elect student government positions.

So what’s happening to RCV in practice right now?

The recent approval for the use of RCV statewide in Maine has exemplified the problems when expanding to statewide elections. Issues may arise when different counties utilize a variety of equipment and methods for voting and collection. Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap estimated it would require an additional $1.7 million in funding over the next two years for ranked choice voting to be implemented statewide.

Implementation issues have also stalled RCV’s use in Sante Fe. In 2008, Santa Fe voters approved ranked choice voting for the city. Nearly ten years later it has yet to be implemented. Because of state law mandating that all voting machines be identical throughout the state, Santa Fe needed a software that could run on existing machines. Then, the Santa Fe City Council expressed concern over the cost and feasibility of executing RCV. A recent memo from the City Clerk stated that the software needed for RCV could now be installed on the current machines for just $40,000. However, the city council was not confident that the software could be installed before an independent certification could occur in late August. Since then, implementation has been pushed back to an unspecified date. Supporters pledge to continue advocating for the use of RCV in the general municipal elections in March of 2018.

The rise in popularity of RCV has opened the door to a process that many see as an improved election method. The method would have been influential in 2016. Had RCV been used in the Republican Primary, Donald Trump would not have won the nomination, according to simulations by FairVote. At its best, RCV allows for majority-driven candidates to be elected to office, which could promote compromise and a shift away from the ideological poles many candidates are forced toward today. Severe challenges persist in implementation and accessibility. If the system soon takes hold at the state level, we could be in for major changes in how we vote throughout the country.

BallotReady is the only nonpartisan online voter guide that provides personalized, easy-to-use, and accessible information about your ballot. From the top of the ticket to the very bottom, BallotReady helps voters compare candidates based on stances on issues, biography, and endorsements. We make it easy to vote informed on every race and referendum.

By Jacob Meyer, BallotReady Intern

BallotReady

BallotReady helps voters vote informed on the entire ballot.

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www.ballotready.org is an online voter guide to local elections. We make it easy to vote informed on every race, every election.

BallotReady

BallotReady helps voters vote informed on the entire ballot.

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