Ranked Choice Voting
Wikipedia Single Transferable Vote
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
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.
