Ranked Choice Voting: Has the time arrived?

By Bert Patrick 

“Political independents continue to constitute the largest political bloc in the U.S., with an average of 43% of U.S. adults identifying this way in 2023, tying the record high from 2014. Independent identification has been 40% or higher each year since 2011, except for the 2016 (39%) and 2020 (39%) presidential election years. Equal 27% shares of U.S. adults identify as Republicans and Democrats, with the Democratic figure marking a new low for that party in Gallup’s trend.” 1

This paragraph from a Gallup article may have shocked you, or more likely, confirmed your reading of our present political landscape. Members of each of the major parties might read it and conclude that it’s because voters in general are turned off by their opponents’ policies and by certain members of “the other party.”  However, we all will have to admit that the statistics are inescapable: the percentage of voters who identify as members of either major party are each 16% lower than those who register as “independents” or “unaffiliated.”

This is a troubling revelation and should be of concern to all of us.

A better use of our time would be to look at possible solutions to this undeniable rejection of the present bipolar system.  I will offer for your consideration one that is already being used in two states, Maine and Alaska, as well as cities, from metropolitan to small. It is also on the ballot in several states this November, placed there by advocates, who hope it will be adopted, and by opponents, where it is already in use, and who want to repeal it. This solution is Ranked Choice Voting or RCV.  This following is an exploration of this one possible method to reduce the partisan divide and to make our voting system more equitable and just, and which potentially would more accurately express the will of the majority of American voters.

Ranked Choice Voting has several variations. Here’s one. In the 2021 Virginia Republican governor’s primary, there were seven candidates.  Voters ranked their preferred candidate as #1, their next favorite as #2, and so on, from 1st to 7th.  After all ballots were tabulated, no candidate had won a majority (50%) of the votes.  This is one of the most important features of RCV: a candidate must win a majority of all votes cast, not a plurality. A plurality is getting more votes than any other candidate.  Why require the winner to get the majority of the votes?  Because a simple plurality would make it possible for a candidate, as it now does in most of our elections, to be elected with 30%, 25% or 20% of the vote, depending on how many candidates are running.  Again, using the Virginia gubernatorial example, if Ranked Choice Voting had NOT been used, theoretically, the candidate who got a mere 15% of all votes cast could have been elected [100% / 7 = 14.285%].

This is one of the most serious defects of our present voting system. It results in the election of extremist candidates, who “out-primary” a member of their own party, usually backed either by party zealots, dark money, or special interest groups, all of whom are interested in holding onto power and benefiting themselves. These candidates, once elected, most often merely pander to their backers, rather than working with colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, to solve our chronic problems.

Going back to the Virginia election, this is how Ranked Choice Voting worked there.  When all ballots were counted and no candidate had a majority, the candidate with the least votes was eliminated.  His/her supporters’ ballots were reviewed and their rankings redistributed. That is, the candidates that each of those voters chose as their second choice, now received additional first choice votes; their third choices now got additional second choice votes; and so on.  After recounting all votes a second time, again no candidate won a majority. This continued through five rounds of voting until Glenn Younkin had 50% or more of the votes, thereby advancing to the general election as the Republican candidate. 2

Now, a second example of Ranked Choice Voting: the 2022 Alaska special election to pick someone to complete a recently deceased congressman’s term in office.  In this election, all registered voters, no matter party affiliation or none, were asked to choose four candidates, backed by any party or none, who would proceed to a general election.  After those four were determined, in the general election, voters ranked them from their 1st choice to their 4th.  In the first round of voting, none of the four got a majority of the votes.  So, the fourth-place finisher, Republican Nick Begich, was eliminated and his supporters’ ballots were reviewed and votes for their second, third and fourth ranked candidates were redistributed.  Unlike what would have been anticipated, Begich supporters’ second choice was not fellow Republican candidate Sarah Palin, but rather other candidates.  There was also a segment of Begich supporters who didn’t even mark second, third and fourth choices.  The end result was that Democratic newcomer Mary Peltola, an Alaska native, eventually won a majority of the votes and became the first person of her heritage to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. 3  As a result, many Alaska Republicans, fearing an ongoing threat to their decades-long domination of Alaska politics, have succeeded in getting a measure to repeal the use of Ranked Choice Voting on this November’s ballot. 4

Below are a number of articles and videos with additional information about Ranked Choice Voting.  I encourage you to read/view them and to keep them for future reference.  Please share this article and sources with others.

Bibliography and Additional Resources:

1 Independent Party ID Tied for High; Democratic ID at New Low https://news.gallup.com/poll/548459/independent-party-tied-high-democratic-new-low.aspx 

2 Glenn Youngkin Wins GOP Nomination for Virginia Governor https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/us/politics/glenn-youngkin-virginia-governor-republicans.html 

3 With Peltola’s Defeat of Palin, Alaska’s Ranked-Choice Voting Has a Moment https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/us/politics/alaska-voting-system-mary-peltola.html

4 Ranked-choice voting that has rocked Alaska politics faces November tests across the nation https://alaskapublic.org/2024/05/29/ranked-choice-voting-that-has-rocked-alaska-politics-faces-november-tests-across-the-nation/

INSIGHT KANSAS: Who’s Afraid of Ranked Choice Voting? https://www.emporiagazette.com/free/article_f0a0a67c-c6a8-11ee-a8b6-0f39e7bf31b2.html

Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center (RCVRC) https://www.rcvresources.org/where-is-rcv-used

Ranked Choice Voting explained in 60 secs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZoFjaTSvQY

What Is Ranked Choice Voting? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z2fRPRkWvY

Fair Vote https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting/

How Does Ranked Choice Voting Work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRPMJmzBBw

Ranked Choice Voting Pros Cons  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47yDXmeNmY