Question of the Week: What is Ranked Choice Voting?

Ranked choice voting is getting a lot of attention. In short, it is a system in which voters go beyond voting for their favored candidate. Instead, they choose second, third or more choices in descending order. The total choices are tabulated until a candidate reaches beyond the 50 percent mark (euphemistically referred to as “50+1”).

Here’s an example: Let’s suppose 1,000 voters participate in a small town election. Candidate A is top choice by 350 of the citizens, second by 100 and third by 40. Candidate B has 100 first place votes, 300 second place votes and 110 third place votes. 

After one round–where traditional voting ends–candidate A is winning 350 to 100. In ranked choice, he still is well short of 50 + 1 threshold (which is 501 votes). Second choices then are added to each candidates’ total. Now candidate A has 450 votes (350 plus 100 votes) and candidate B has 400 votes (100 + 300 votes). There still is no mayor-elect.

The next and last step in this example is to add in the third layer of votes. This gives 40 votes to candidate A for a total of 490. Ms. B gets 110 more votes for a total of 510 votes (100 + 300 + 110) and is the mayor-elect.

The website FairVote has a tremendous amount of coverage of ranked choice voting, including where and in which types of elections it is utilized or close to being used.

The organization, which is nonpartisan, lists RCV’s pros and cons. The pros are that it more fully enfranchises voters, is less expensive than traditional primary/run-off elections and creates more opportunities for people of color and women to run for office. It also puts the focus on candidates’ extolling their own virtues as opposed to targeting a single opponent with negative ads.

There are downsides to RCV, of course. Critics say that ballots are confusing. This can lead to mistakes by voters and/or those tabulating the vote. It can reduce turnout which, obviously, is the precise opposite of what supporters want.

RCV also can lead to manipulation. In 2022, FairVote Director of Research Deb Otis and Duke University Professor of Political Science John Aldrich collaborated on a pro and con piece that was posted at DividedWeFall. Aldrich notes that the system is not immune to “strategic manipulation” by clever politicians:

Imagine, if you will, that there is a well-known political figure who endorses candidates who support him or herself, and this endorsement is backed by organizations, money, and activists. Now imagine that these groups collectively tell adoring supporters of this figure how to rank their choices, doing so in such a way that maximizes the chances of their favored candidates winning while reducing the chances of the more moderate contenders who are perhaps disparaged as DINOs or RINOs. 

A couple of things are clear. At the end of the day, an organized system of voting depends on the will of the people to be governed. Ranked choice voting clearly is an option that will grow. At the same time, its shortcomings must be taken seriously and guarded against. 

Ranked choice voting can be a bit difficult to explain and folks can get caught up in the details. But counting the votes of more than the person who gets the most votes on election day represents a significant change in how we elect officials.

Check out VTT’s previous Question of the Week: What is the Silver Lining of the Trump Era?