This is a preliminary version of our presentation of ranked voting.

The Problem: Winner-Take-All

In single-winner elections (executive offices and single-member legislative districts), our traditional plurality voting rules allow candidates supported by a minority of voters to win, if the rest of the community is divided among more than one alternative candidate. Plurality elections result in legislative bodies that over-represent some groups and under-represent others. And they leave every voter who didn’t vote for the single winner in his or her district unrepresented.

In at-large races, such as Marin County’s city council elections, the same winner-take-all rules allow one slate or point of view--even a minority viewpoint--to win all the seats. Under this system, which political scientists call “block voting”, other segments of the community can end up with no representation at all.

For a more detailed examination of the problems with winner-take-all elections, go here.

The Solution: Ranked Voting

We need to replace our outdated election rules with voting methods that promote higher turnout, positive campaigning, and full representation of the diverse points of view in our communities. For single-seat elections, this means instant runoff voting (IRV). For at-large local elections, it means the multi-winner form of IRV, generally called choice voting.

Choice voting works the same way as IRV, with one additional feature. In both methods, when your first choice can’t win, your vote is passed along to your second choice, and then your third, and so on, maximizing the odds you will help elect someone you support, and ensuring that the winner has a majority.

In addition, in a choice voting election, when your first choice is a popular candidate who receives more votes that she or he needs to win, a portion of your vote is passed along to your next choice. The result is that a majority slate or viewpoint elects a majority of the council or legislature—but not all of it. And minority points of view get representation in rough proportion to their numbers.

For further information on IRV, download this brochure and visit the IRV America section of FairVote's website.

For more detailed explanations of choice voting, download this brochure and visit the choice voting section of the FairVote website. Another great explanation is on the website of Davis Citizens for Representation.

Where We Are Now

In California alone, IRV has already been implemented in San Francisco, and approved by the voters in Berkeley, San Leandro, Oakland (for special elections only) and Santa Clara County. The Davis City Council plans to put a measure to adopt choice voting for city council elections on the June 2006 ballot. On September 13, 2005 the Santa Monica city council voted to study the subject.

Under current state law, San Rafael could adopt ranked voting for city elections by passing a straightforward charter amendment. County government and the other ten cities in Marin would have to adopt charters--by no means impossible, but an unfortunate complication. For more on this, see our article on county and city charters.

We need to build support for state Senate Bill 596 by Debra Bowen (D-28), which authorizes ranked voting for all local jurisdictions, not just charter counties and cities. It would even cover school boards and special districts. And it would provide the detailed counting rules that state election officials need in order to certify voting machines and software for ranked voting elections. For more on SB 596, see this article.

And we need to ensure that when we purchase new voting equipment, it not only provides accessibility for the disabled and voter-verified paper trails but also is compatible with ranked voting methods. The final article in this section goes into more detail on voting machines and software.

Last revised October 7, 2006