Ranked Choice Voting Promises to Change Elections. Here's What to Know

This article by Briana Lee in LAist makes the connection between ranked choice voting and women's representation. Read an excerpt below.

It’s not clear if it increases voter turnout. There are certainly cases in which cities have seen higher turnout in elections after adopting ranked choice voting, but it’s difficult to identify whether that was due to ranked choice voting or some other factor, like a high-profile race on the ballot. Ranked choice voting might help boost turnout if cities eliminate primary elections and only hold one round of voting — that’s one way to cut down on voter fatigue. And if the system incentivizes a more diverse pool of candidates to compete, as supporters say it does, that can raise turnout numbers, too.

It might help with candidate diversity, but data is limited. Supporters claim that ranked choice voting diversifies the candidate pool by encouraging more women, people of color, and third-party candidates to run. The theory is that because candidates are no longer competing for just one vote, there’s less hostility toward anyone who might threaten the momentum of a frontrunner. But the data to back that up is still slim. It will take more time, more places adopting ranked choice voting, and more research on this to know whether that’s true.

Read the complete Laist article here.

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