Public Comment

Voters find few challenges in using ranked choice voting ballot; more voters are ranking multiple candidates, while voter errors decline; new machines to allow improvements

SAN FRANCISCO – Ahead of San Francisco’s June 5 mayoral election, a report released today by FairVote California reveals that city voters interact effectively with ranked choice voting (RCV) ballots. Findings indicate that voters are increasingly ranking multiple candidates and that voter errors like skipped rankings and overvotes (when voters rank more than one candidate for each choice) are rare.

The report, which draws on data from elections that took place in San Francisco between 2004 – 2016, finds that city voters have used RCV ballots well from the start and more effectively each year. The report divides the elections into categories based on how competitive they were and analyzes the rates at which voters ranked candidates, the rates at which they skipped the election entirely, and voting errors. 

Voters have become more likely to rank second and third choices, while skipped rankings -- especially in competitive races with three or more candidates -- are rare and become rarer over time. Likewise, overvotes are rare, and issues with overvoting are comparable with non-RCV elections. 

“Ranked choice voting is a key narrative in this year’s competitive mayoral election in San Francisco, and this report shows that voters are easily able to use ranked choice voting to cast their votes,” said Pedro Hernandez, deputy director of FairVote California and an author of the report. “RCV allows San Franciscans to vote for the candidates they prefer as opposed to wasting time trying to figure out how to game the system, so their vote isn’t wasted.” 

The report also reviews the growing body of evidence on the impact of RCV on voter choice and voter turnout. Authors of the report also modeled cost-estimates savings for runoff elections, estimating that the city of San Francisco saved more than $10 million by electing leaders in one election. They also identify a sharp increase in electoral success by candidates of color in the 53 city offices elected by RCV in the Bay Area. 

“One way to understand the impact of RCV is to contrast the mayoral election in San Francisco with California’s current top-two system in place for state and federal elections,” Hernandez said. “Having eight mayoral candidates is not a problem when using RCV in San Francisco, but having only one vote with top-two sanctions vote-splitting and is less representative of the state’s electorate.” 

The report does provide evidence suggesting that RCV will work all the better with two changes that will be in place in 2019 due to leasing of new voting equipment: allowing voters to rank more than three candidates, and having a ballot design proven in other cities to make ranking more candidates easy. In its first mayoral elections this spring, Santa Fe, N.M. experienced a significant rise in turnout and nearly two-in-three voters choosing to rank all five mayoral candidates. 

The full report can be found here. 

Background
San Francisco has used RCV to elect 18 city offices: its Mayor, Board of Supervisors, and six other citywide offices since 2004. At least 14 other cities will be using RCV in upcoming elections, and Maine will be using it for statewide primaries in June. Using RCV permits voters to rank candidates on the ballot rather than voting for a single candidate, which can limit voter participation and contribute to an uneven playing field for diverse and underrepresented voices in cities like San Francisco. More information about ranked choice voting can be found here. 

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