How Ranked-Choice Voting Is Spreading, One City at a Time

Election officials in a growing number of jurisdictions are testing ranked-choice voting as an alternative to traditional plurality elections, arguing it better reflects voter preferences in crowded races while critics raise concerns about complexity and delayed results.

Ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference rather than selecting just one, has been adopted by a growing number of cities and states over the past decade, driven by advocates who argue the system better reflects overall voter preference in races with more than two viable candidates and reduces the incentive for strategic voting.

Under the system, if no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their votes redistributed to those voters’ next-ranked choice, a process repeated until one candidate secures a majority, rather than declaring a winner based on a simple plurality.

Critics point to complexity and slower results

Critics of the system argue that the ranking process is less intuitive for some voters than simply choosing one candidate, and that the multi-round tabulation process can meaningfully delay final results compared to a traditional plurality count, a real practical tradeoff even where the underlying reasoning for the system is sound.

“The system solves a real problem with vote-splitting in crowded races. It also asks more of both voters and election administrators than a simple plurality count.”

With several additional jurisdictions considering adoption and existing implementations generating years of usable data on voter behavior and administrative outcomes, ranked-choice voting appears likely to keep expanding gradually, even as the debate over its tradeoffs relative to traditional plurality elections remains active in jurisdictions still deciding whether to adopt it.