Ranked Choice Voting

Wikipedia Single Transferable Vote

by Wikipedia

The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV)[a] is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternative preferences if their preferred candidate is eliminated or elected with surplus votes, so that their vote is used to elect someone they prefer over others in the running. STV aims to approach proportional representation based on votes cast in the district where it is used, so that each vote is worth about the same as another.

STV is a family of multi-winner proportional representation electoral systems. The proportionality of its results and the proportion of votes actually used to elect someone are equivalent to those produced by proportional representation election systems based on lists. STV systems can be thought of as a variation on the largest remainders method that uses candidate-based solid coalitions, rather than party lists.[clarification needed][1] Surplus votes belonging to winning candidates (those in excess of an electoral quota) may be thought of as remainder votes. Surplus votes may be transferred from a successful candidate to another candidate and then possibly used to elect that candidate.

News about Ranked Choice Voting

FairVote.org SF Mayoral Article

Scientific American Article on RCV 2004

Maine ranked-choice voting as a case of electoral-system change

Journal of Representative Democracy 7/25/2018

Ranked-choice voting (RCV) manufactures an electoral majority in a fragmented candidate field. For RCV to pass at referendum, part of a reform coalition must be willing to lose election to the other part of that coalition, typically an out-of-power major party. A common enemy enables this sort of coalition by assuring (a) the out-of-power party of sufficient transfer votes to win and (b) a winner that junior reform partners prefer to the incumbent. I test this logic against the November 2016 adoption of RCV in Maine. First, I show that the most recent, runner-up party overwhelmingly supplied votes to the ‘yes’ side. I also show elite endorsements tending to come from this party, albeit not exclusively. Then I show a drift in the mass of public opinion, such that reform partners could coordinate. RCV is likely to find favour where voter preferences are polarised and lopsided, and where multiple candidates split the larger ideological bloc.

“More Choices and More Power”: How the Ranked-Choice Ballot Is Changing NYC Elections

by DEMOCRACY NOW 20/6/25

As New Yorkers head to the polls in the primaries for upcoming local elections, voters will have the chance to vote for not one, but up to five of their preferred candidates for mayor and other races. R

Maine Is Trying Out A New Way To Run Elections. But Will It Survive The Night?

by Nathaniel Rakich 12/6/18 FIVETHIRTYEIGHT

The man who lives in the Blaine House in Augusta, Maine, was, for many, a sneak preview of the 45th president of the United States. Like Donald Trump, Republican Gov. Paul LePage has transformed the face of government with his politically incorrect brand of conservatism — and he did it despite winning less than a majority of votes. LePage won a seven-way Republican primary for governor in 2010 with 37 percent of the vote, and he beat a Democrat and three independents in the general with just 38 percent.

How open primaries and ranked-choice voting can help break partisan gridlock

by Judy Woodruff, Connor Seitchik, Christine Romo 29/5/25 PBS NEWS

A major political upset in Alaska as a Democrat won the state’s only seat in the U.S. House. Former state lawmaker Mary Peltola defeated former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a special election to replace former Congressman Don…

Ranked voting in Maine a go for presidential election

by David Sharp 22/9/20 PBS NEWS

The Supreme Judicial Court concluded that the Maine Republican Party failed to reach the threshold of signatures needed for a “People’s Veto” referendum aimed at rejecting a state law that expands ranked choice voting to the presidential election.

What’s Wrong with Ranked Choice Voting

by ADRIAN KUZMINSKI 30/3/20 COUNTERPUNCH

An electoral reform popular with many political activists and commentators is ranked choice voting, also called cumulative or preferential voting.

In 'Historic Victory', Maine Voters Demand Ranked-Choice Voting in Statewide Elections...Again

by Julia Conley 13/6/18 Common Dreams

Voters across Maine reiterated their support for ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the state's primary election, with 74 percent of precincts reporting that more than 54 percent had voted in favor of the system--an even higher approval rating than the system got in November 2016 when it first appeared on ballots.

'Huge Win for Democracy': Nationwide Celebrations as NYC Residents Approve Ranked-Choice Voting Ballot Measure

by Jessica Corbett 6/11/19 Common Dreams

NYC's ranked-choice voting (RCV) measure was supported by a number of advocacy groups, politicians, and even The New York Times editorial board, which called the question the "most exciting proposal" of the five measures considered by city voters Tuesday.

Portland elects progressive mayor and most diverse city council

by Dani Anguiano 12/11/24 The Guardian

In 2022 it appeared the political winds in Portland, Oregon, one of the US’s most progressive cities, were beginning to shift. Residents who had grown frustrated over the city’s approach to homelessness rejected the incumbent, Jo Ann Hardesty – the first Black woman to serve on the city council – in favor of the “law-and-order” Democrat Rene Gonzalez, who pledged to back an expanded police force and “clean up” Portland.

'Momentum for Better Elections' as Maine Supreme Court Approves Ranked-Choice Voting for 2018 Elections

by Julia Conley 18/4/18 Common Dreams

Election reform advocates on Wednesday praised a decision by Maine's Supreme Court, upholding the use of ranked-choice voting for the state's upcoming primary elections, saying the ruling demonstrated that the court heeded the demands of Maine voters.

In St. Louis, Voters Will Get To Vote For As Many Candidates As They Want

by Nathaniel Rakich 1/3/21 FiveThirtyEight

When voters head to the polls Tuesday to pick St. Louis’s next mayor,1 they’ll be faced with four names on the ballot. But unlike in most other elections, they won’t have to choose just one candidate to vote for. Instead, St. Louisans will experiment with a new form of voting that allows them to vote for as many candidates as they like.

Despite Broad Popularity, GOP Moves to Ban Ranked-Choice Voting at Local Level

by Julia Conley 29/4/22 Common Dreams

Buried in a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida this week is a provision that will eliminate Floridians' ability to use ranked-choice voting to decide their elections--as people in at least two cities there have voted to do--making DeSantis the latest GOP leader to ban the broadly popular voting reform.

Millions of Democratic votes were lost in the primaries. Is this the fix?

by the guardian org. 11/3/20 The Guardian

In Colorado and Texas, early voters for candidates other than Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders might have made a statement, but they didn’t have the chance to influence the primary election. Some of the estimated 20% of Californians who voted early asked for a do-over. In Minnesota, 40,000 people had reportedly cast their ballots a week before Super Tuesday – and days before Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out.

How Do You Poll A ‘Ranked Choice Voting’ Election?

by Nate Silver and Galen Druke 21/5/21 FiveThirtyEight

In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, Nate Silver and Galen Druke open the mailbag and answer listeners’ questions about politics, polling and more.

Ranked-Choice Voting: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

by Howie Hawkins 28/4/20 COUNTERPUNCH

Climate activist Bill McKibben took to the New Yorker recently to advise me and the Green Party to stand down our presidential campaign and instead work for ranked-choice voting (RCV) so we don’t “spoil” the election for Joe Biden (“Instead of Challenging Joe Biden, Maybe the Green Party Could Help Change Our Democracy,” April 15).