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Across Ontario, voters will head to the polls on Oct. 27. They will indicate a single choice for their mayor. In cities with a ward system, they will also mark a single vote for a councillor. But this could be very different by the time of the next election.

According to news reports, the Ontario government will finally move to allow municipalities to adopt “ranked ballots” before the next election. If some breathless reporting is to be believed, this “carries potential for huge change.” Bullying candidates like Rob Ford will never win again. Democracy will flourish in our cities.

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I am skeptical of how much change ranked ballots can bring about. But this is as good a reason as any to try them as a small experiment towards improved local democracy.

The operation of ranked ballots is straightforward. If there are four candidates on the ballot, the voter indicates her first, second, third and fourth preference. When the counting begins, it is first determined if one candidate has a majority of first preferences. If no candidate does, then the candidate with the fewest first preferences is dropped. All ballots that preferred the dropped candidate are now transferred to the second choice indicated on those ballots. First preferences are then counted again to determine if there is a majority winner among the remaining candidates. If not, the remaining last place candidate is dropped, and her ballots are reallocated and votes are recounted.