Ranked Choice Voting Ranked Choice Voting 101 Where Ranked Choice Voting is Used

Where Ranked Choice Voting is Used

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Using RCV now:

Upcoming implementations:

Amherst, Massachusetts: Adopted charter in 2018 with ranked choice voting and passing implementation statute before projected first use in 2021.



Benton County, Oregon: Adopted by voters in 2016 for general elections for county offices of sheriff and commissioner. It will be used in November 2020.



Easthampton, MA: Adopted in 2019 and to be used in mayoral and all single-seat city council elections starting in 2021

New York City: Adopted in 2019 and to be used in all city primary and special elections starting in 2021.

Palm Desert, California: Adopted January 2020 to be used for city council elections in November 2022 as part of a California Voting Rights Act settlement. One district elected in single winner elections, with the rest of the city electing in staggered two-winner multi winner elections (proportional).

Presidential Nominations (major party primaries and caucuses*) :

Alaska: All voters in Democratic primary in April 2020

All voters in Democratic primary in April 2020 Nevada: Early voters in Democratic caucuses in Feb. 2020

Hawaii: All voters in Democratic primary in April 2020 All voters in Democratic primary in April 2020

Kansas: All voters in Democratic primary in May 2020 All voters in Democratic primary in May 2020

Wyoming: All voters in Democratic primary in April 2020 All voters in Democratic primary in April 2020

Parties conducted an RCV tally until all candidates exceeded 15% of the vote, after which delegates were allocated proportionally. Party decisions about 2024 will be made closer to that date.

Advisory or option for future uses:

Davis, California: adopted in 2006 as an advisory referendum for fair representation form of RCV and awaiting state law change.

Ferndale, Michigan: adopted by voters in 2004, awaiting implementation readiness.



Memphis, Tennessee: Adopted by voters in 2008, and approved again by voters in 2018.



Santa Clara County, California: approved in charter by voters as option in 1998.

Sarasota, Florida: adopted by voters in 2007, awaiting implementation readiness.

Vancouver, Washington: approved in charter by voters as option in 1999.

State of Virginia: Local options bill passed in 2020 and cities can opt in starting in 2021.

State of Utah: A local options bill was passed in 2018 and two cities opted in for 2019. More cities could choose to opt in for the future.

For overseas voters in runoffs

Arkansas: Adopted in 2005, first used 2006, and was extended to all local runoffs in 2007.

Alabama: By agreement with a federal court, used in special election for U.S. House, 2013; became law for all federal primary runoffs in 2015.

Louisiana: Adopted and used since the 1990s for state and federal general election runoffs; also includes out of state military voters.

Mississippi: Starting 2014, agreed in federal court consent degree to use in federal runoffs.

South Carolina: Adopted and first used in 2006 for state and federal runoffs.

Adopted and first used in 2006 for state and federal runoffs. Springfield, Illinois: Adopted in 2007 and used since 2011.

RCV on Campus

Over 50 colleges and universities in the United States use ranked choice voting to elect some or all student government positions. That means that over 700,000 students across the country are empowered with more choice in electing student leaders.

Full list of colleges and universities using RCV for student government elections

Private Organizations and Corporations

Recommended by Robert’s Rules of Order for organizational elections conducted by mail, ranked choice voting is used widely among private associations organizations. Probably its highest profile use by a private organization is in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who use RCV to nominate and select winners of the prestigious Academy Awards. Ranked choice voting in multi-winner elections is commonly used by British organizations as well.

Too many organizations use RCV for a comprehensive list. Here is a partial list of private organizations and corporations using RCV.

Public Elections Internationally

Ranked choice voting is used by every voter in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Malta, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, often with the multi-winner, proportional form of it (“single transferable vote”). RCV also is used in party elections and local elections throughout the English-speaking world, including national leaders of the major conservative parties in Canada and New Zealand and major liberal parties in Canada and United Kingdom.



Examples of uses of RCV include: Australia (federal House of Representatives and nearly all state and local government elections and a multi-winner form of it for senate elections); Ireland (for president and multi-winner form for parliament and many local elections; Malta (multi-winner form for parliament; New Zealand (for mayor and city council in major cities such as Wellington, along with health board elections); Northern Ireland (multi-winner form for regional parliament and most local elections); Scotland (multi=winner form for all local government elections. In India, Nepal and Pakistan elected officials use the multi-winner from of RCV to select their national senates and in the case of India its president. Forms of RCV are also used to elect the mayor of London and president of Sri Lanka.

International election systems