How Does RCV Work?

A mock ranked choice ballot asking the voter to rank the "best cookies." Options include chocolate, chocolate chip, and peanut butter. The above text reads, "Ballot: voters securely rank their preferences."

An infographic explaining how ranked choice contests are tabulated is shown. Voters' first choices are counted. If a candidate has a majority, they win. If no candidate has a majority, the candidate with the smallest share of the vote is eliminated and their voters' votes are counted for their next-highest preferences. This process continues in successive rounds until a candidate has attained a majority. The above text reads, "tally: winners must earn a majority."

In pick-one plurality voting (the system Longmont currently uses for its elections), voters pick one candidate and the candidate that receives the most votes wins—even if the majority of voters backed other candidates. Under RCV, voters instead have the opportunity to rank candidates in the order of their preference. When votes are tallied, all first-choice votes are counted. If a candidate has a majority, they win. If no candidate has a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Their supporters' ballots are counted for the voters’ second choices. The process continues until a candidate has earned a majority of the votes.

The bottom line is that RCV is simple. If you can rank your top-three favorite ice cream flavors, you can fill out a ranked choice ballot.

Why is RCV Better than Plurality Voting?

RCV offers numerous benefits over pick-one plurality voting. Specifically, RCV can:

Reduce extremism and promote civil campaigning
Prevent candidates from acting as "spoilers"
Produce more representative political leaders
Reduce the influence of money in politics

Reducing Extremism & Promoting Civil Campaigning

RCV can promote civil campaigning because candidates have an incentive not to alienate their opponents' voters. Even if voters are unlikely to rank a given candidate first, candidates can still aim to be voters' next-highest preference and benefit in the event that their first-choice is eliminated. Research suggests that this leads to less negative campaigning and elections focused on issues, not personalities.

Preventing The "Spoiler Effect"

In pick-one plurality voting elections, candidates are often opposed to other candidates with similar ideologies or bases of support from entering the race. This is because candidates fear that similar candidates will "spoil" the election by siphoning off votes that would have otherwise gone to the original candidate. Fear of the spoiler effect can lead to elections with fewer choices for voters to pick between and prevent individuals with valuable contributions to make from running for office. RCV eliminates the possibility of the spoiler effect because voters no longer have to declare a preference for just one candidate, and can instead support as many as they would like by ranking them in the order of their preference.

More Representative Political Leaders

Under pick-one plurality voting, a candidate only needs to win more votes than any other candidate—a plurality—to win an election. If more than two candidates are running, this means that a winning candidate can enter office even though a most of their constituents decided to back other candidates. In contrast, a candidate elected under RCV must be a supported by a majority of the electorate. This ensures that elected officials are more representative of the voting public and prevents candidates supported by narrow factions of voters from winning crowded races.

Reducing the Influence of Money in Politics

There is an incredibly strong correlation between the winning candidate and the candidate who raises the most money in pick-one plurality voting elections, making fundraising one of the most important aspects of the campaign and giving wealthy donors an outsize level of political influence. In RCV elections, on the other hand, this correlation decreases significantly, and candidates with less money have a significantly better chance at being elected into office, putting political power back into the hands of the voters.

2 Minute RCV Explanation*

*In this video, the narrator refers to pick-one plurality voting as "single-choice, winner-take-all" voting. Although the terms are different, they both refer to the same (non-ideal) system of voting.