In the News
August 3, 2021
This Real Clear Politics commentary by Steven John Mulroy cites RepresentWomen's 2020 ranked choice voting report. Read an excerpt below.
New York City’s first-ever citywide ranked-choice voting election presents a good opportunity to examine a concern raised by RCV opponents: whether the new system hurts racial minorities. Both the New York City experience and recent scholarship make clear that it doesn’t.
RCV is having a moment nationally. More cities and states have embraced it in recent years, with over 75 jurisdictions adopting the reform. It’s used statewide in Maine and Alaska and in dozens of cities across the country. Virginia Republicans used it to nominate their statewide ticket this year, and four state Democratic parties used it for their presidential primaries last year.
Under RCV, voters get to rank their candidate preferences – first, second, third, and so on. Under the most common form of RCV, used for elections for a single office, election officials check to see if any candidate has a majority of first-place choices. If so, they win, as in any election. If not, the candidate with the fewest first-place choices is eliminated, with the votes for that candidate reallocated among the remaining candidates based on those ballots’ second-place choices. This process of elimination and reallocation continues until one candidate has a majority of votes and is elected.
RCV eliminates the “spoiler” problem in plurality, or “first past the post” elections, as well as the need for costly, often low-turnout runoff elections if no candidate gets a majority. Since voters no longer have to worry about “throwing away their vote” on a perceived longshot candidate, RCV levels the playing field and provides opportunities for lesser-known, lesser-funded candidates, including third-party candidates. Studies have also shown that it reduces negative campaigning and increases civility, because candidates have to appeal not only to their own bases but also to their opponents’ bases, in a bid to get second- or third-place votes.
Read the complete article here.
