8 misconceptions about ranked choice voting
Ranked choice voting is the fastest-growing nonpartisan electoral reform in the U.S. In Virginia, both Democrat and Republican parties have embraced ranked choice voting in recent years. Ranked choice voting rewards candidates who build coalitions, not those who rely on a narrow base of voters — resulting in more representative government, less polarization, and less partisan gridlock. Despite its popularity, there are still many questions and common misconceptions about ranked choice voting. We debunk and explain them below:
1. Ranked choice voting is confusing to use
A common refrain is that ranked choice voting is too confusing for voters. While ranked choice voting is often new to voters, survey after survey shows that voters have no trouble using ranked choice voting. Where ranked choice voting is used, voters want to keep using it. While ranked choice voting gives the options to rank candidates, voters are still able to select only one candidate if they choose.
2. Ranked choice voting benefits Democrats
Ranked choice voting is often painted as a way for Democrats to ensure they win elections. Ranked choice voting does not inherently favor one party over another, it simply incentivizes candidates that have majority support. In Virgina, Governor Glenn Youngkin was nominated with ranked choice voting in the Republican gubernatorial primary. He went on to win the general election.
3. Ranked choice voting takes too long
While the implementation of rounds (or an instant runoff) would seem to add to the time needed to declare a winner, a ranked choice voting election can be tabulated as fast as elections are currently.
4. Ranked choice voting doesn’t honor a voter’s first choice
A ranked choice voting election allows for “instant runoff” rounds where the lowest performing candidate is eliminated if no candidate has reached a majority of votes. This differs from “first past the post” elections where the candidate with the largest number of votes wins, even if the candidate has less than a majority of votes.
Critics have raised concerns that this suppresses the popular vote because a candidate with a plurality of votes in the first round may not ultimately win. However, if a candidate has not received a majority of votes, then the majority of voters have voted against that candidate. When this is considered, the popular vote is that that candidate does not win.
5. Ranked choice voting allows a candidate with marginal support to win
Another concern is that a candidate with small or marginal support in the first round may ultimately win. Ranked choice voting ensures the winning candidate has broad support by only declaring a winner once a candidate receives a majority of votes. And candidates do need to have enough early round votes to avoid being eliminated. Ranked choice voting ensures that candidates that have a support ceiling of less than 50% cannot ultimately win.
6. Ballot exhaustion
Because ranked choice voting does not mandate a voter rank their choices fully, if all the candidates ranked on a ballot are eliminated, that ballot no longer has a candidate to be reallocated to and is “exhausted.” Critics contend that voters may feel they must vote for candidates they wouldn't want to vote for simply to avoid ballot exhaustion.
Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank the candidates they are most enthusiastic about. If there were five choices, ranking your top three to four would ensure your ballot votes against the candidate(s) you approve of the least. Ultimately, this is ranking your top choices rather than ranking candidates from best to worst. Voters are not required to rank or vote for a candidate they would not want to see elected to office.
7. Ranked choice voting is unfair
Critics also claim that ranked choice voting doesn't treat everyone equally, since they don't necessarily get their first choice. ranked choice voting allows voters to express their preferences more fully and to have more choices to choose from. While they may not get their first choice, first past the post elections often see voters picking candidates that they wouldn’t rank first if they had more options.
8. Counting votes with ranked choice voting is too complicated
Counting votes with ranked choice voting is done through a round-by-round count, also known as instant runoff voting. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes (often described as 50% plus one vote) after ballots are counted, then the process moves into an instant runoff or rounds.
In order to win a single-winner ranked choice voting race, candidates need more than 50% of the votes. If a candidate receives more than half of first choices in the first round, they win - no ranked choice voting needed. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who ranked the eliminated candidate first have their vote count for their next choice. This process continues until a candidate wins more than half of the votes. Learn more here.
In a race where there are multiple seats to be elected, the process is similar but the threshold for victory is lower. For example, if a city is electing four people to its city council, each candidate must earn more than 20% of the vote to win a seat. Learn more here.
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