Ranked Choice Voting

Ranked-choice voting (RCV), an alternative voting system that allows voters to rank multiple candidates on a ballot in order of preference, is also known by different names including instant-runoff voting (IRV), single transferable vote (STV), alternative vote, and preferential voting. 

The origins of ranked choice voting can be traced back to the late 13th century and Ramon Llull from the Kingdom of Majorca. Four hundred and fifty years later, in 1770, Jean-Charles de Borda (1733 –1799), French mathematician and physicist, formulated a ranked preferential voting system (Borda count) that was used for almost two decades by the French Academy of Sciences to elect its members. About the same time, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolás de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, (1743-1794), French philosopher and mathematician, developed the Condorcet method to determine collective preference. 

In the 19^th century, interest in ranked voting was renewed in Britain and Denmark with the development of the Single Transferable Vote (STV). Englishman Thomas Wright Hill (1763-1851), mathematician and schoolmaster, is credited with inventing STV in 1819. Carl Christoffer Georg Andræ (1812-1893), Danish politician and mathematician, established the STV system that was used in Denmark’s parliamentary elections beginning 1856. Around 1857, British barrister and political scientist, Thomas Hare (1806-1891) popularized the idea of proportional representation and STV (Hare system) across the British Empire.  And, in the United States, in 1870, William Robert Ware (1832-1915), first professor of architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dabbled briefly in voting systems and used the idea of STV to devise Instant Runoff Voting (Ware’s method). 

Tasmania used ranked voting for government elections in the 1890s followed by Australia in the 1910s. By the 1920s, ranked voting was used in cities in Ireland, South Africa, Canada, and United States. In the modern era, countries using RCV include Malta, New Zealand, and Scotland.

In 1915, Ashtabula, Ohio was the first city in the United States to use RCV to elect its City Council. By the early 1940s, two dozen cities across six states used RCV. However, unrelenting repeal efforts between 1915 and1962 led to its successful reversal in all but one city –   Cambridge, MA. 

In the last two decades, RCV has seen resurgence in cities like Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Tacoma Park, MD. And, in 2018, Maine became the first state to use RCV for all general congressional elections. As of 2022, Alaska adopted the use of ranked choice voting in its federal and state elections. In Nevada, pending a vote of approval in November 2024, the state will use ranked voting for state and federal elections but not presidential.

Vermont

In 2005, Burlington adopted Instant Runoff Voting (a form of ranked choice voting) for its 2006 and 2009 mayoral elections; voters repealed the system in 2010. In late 2019, efforts to revive ranked choice voting for mayor, city, and school board elections were successful. The League of Women Voters of Vermont was a partner in the Better Ballot Burlington Initiative campaign advocating for ranked choice voting in city council elections. Voters approved and implemented ranked choice voting in Burlington for the second time in March 2021. On May 27, 2023, it became law without Governor Scott’s signature.