What is Instant Runoff Voting?

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Instant Runoff Voting (also known as Ranked Choice Voting or RCV) allows voters to rank candidates by preference instead of choosing just one. It works like this:

1st Choice: The candidate you love.

2nd choice: The candidate you like.

3rd or 4th choice: The candidate you like slightly less.

5th choice: The candidate you can stand.

Instant Runoff Voting puts voters first. It puts more power in the hands of voters, where it belongs.

With Instant Runoff Voting, your vote has more impact on the outcome of elections. 

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How much money will Instant Runoff Elections save?
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Currently, if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in one of our March elections, we have to hold a runoff election in May. Runoff elections are expensive and have historically been hostile. The 2013 Redondo Beach runoff election cost taxpayers nearly an additional $300,000! Runoff elections also tend to have lower voter turnout than the city’s March general election.

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So how does the instant runoff work?
 

With IRV, if no one gets more than 50%, an “instant run-off” is held.  Whoever is in last place is eliminated and votes are counted again. If your first-choice gets eliminated, your vote goes to your next choice. It’s just like an in-person runoff: if your favorite doesn’t make the runoff, you have to choose someone else – your next favorite – only with IRV, it’s instant, without the expense and hassle of voting again. Rinse and repeat until someone gets a majority (more than 50%) of the votes.

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What are some other benefits of Instant Runoff Voting?

 

Instant Runoff Voting Eliminates “Vote-Splitting” 

In Instant Runoff Voting elections, you always get to vote for your favorite candidate, even if they don’t have a good chance of winning. If your favorite candidate gets eliminated, then your vote immediately counts for your next choice. You can truly vote your conscience without worrying about wasting your vote. Ranking your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th choices will never hurt your favorite candidate. 

 

Instant Runoff Voting is Correlated with Increased Voter Turnout

Cities that have Instant Runoff Voting elections have seen a steady increase in voter turnout. Turn out improves when people feel that their vote is more meaningful.

 

Instant Runoff Voting Fosters More Positive Less Negative Campaigns 

In Instant Runoff Voting elections, candidates often need 2nd and 3rd choice votes to win a majority of the vote. As such, they will ask for your first-choice vote, but they will also ask for your second and third choices if another candidate is your favorite. Candidates know they are not likely to get your second or third choice vote if they have been engaging in negative “mudslinging” personal attacks against your favorite candidate.  IRV changes the incentives for candidates. The best strategy is to stay positive and focused on issues, rather than pursuing character assassination.

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Instant Runoff Voting Promotes More Unity

Our city is at its best when we unite as one, but these days it feels like politics is tearing us apart. Instant Runoff Voting helps make sure we all work together for the common good. It opens the door for candidates who put the interests of everyday voters first. 

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Instant Runoff Voting Promotes Diversity, whether that’s race, gender, age, or ideology

More women and candidates of color have run and won in elections with Instant Runoff Voting ballots. It gives all communities fairer representation and allows voters to support candidates with the best ideas, no matter their demographic. 

 

More benefits of ranked voting:

• Voter choice, freedom, and empowerment – It reduces strategic voting and pressure to vote for the ‘devil you know’.

• Ranking is natural and easy to understand. 

• It helps dissolve toxic politics and changes the culture of power – It incentivizes coalition-building and appealing to voters’ as at least a second choice, not the zero-sum ego games of our current system.

• Candidates have to build a coalition that includes 1st *and* 2nd choices (you can’t win with only 2nd choice votes).

 

Why change the system, and why change it now?

Instant Runoff Voting has been in the United States for decades. There are no barriers to Instant Runoff Voting under federal law or the U.S. Constitution and it is widely used in cities and states and across the political spectrum.  IRV promotes positive, inclusive and fair elections that encourage a diversity of candidates and saves money by eliminating the need for run-off elections.

 

Why should I rank the candidates?

• More choice, more power!

• Even if your favorite candidate doesn’t win, you still have a say in who’s elected.

• You can vote your conscience without worrying that you’re wasting your vote or helping a candidate you don’t like.

• Ranking a 2nd, 3rd, etc. choice will never hurt your favorite candidate.

 

Do I have to rank all the candidates?

 

It’s up to you how many candidates to rank. Your vote is most powerful if you rank multiple candidates, but your vote will still count if you only rank one or a couple of candidates. If you choose not to rank multiple, you have no backup choices when your top candidate(s) are defeated. But your vote still counts if you only rank one candidate.

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It’s up to you how many candidates to rank. Your vote is most powerful if you rank multiple candidates, but your vote will still count if you only rank one or two candidates. If you choose not to rank multiple candidates, you have no backup choices if your top candidate(s) are defeated. (It’s the same as abstaining from a runoff and staying home). But your vote still counts if you only rank one candidate, for as long as they remain “alive” in the race.

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Can I rank my favorite candidate more than once or in every position?

 

It won’t disqualify your ballot, but it doesn’t help their chances of winning, and if  they are defeated in a given round, you won’t  have any backup choices to be counted in later rounds. It’s like trying to vote for them in a runoff when they’re no longer on the ballot. As long as your favorite remains in the race, your vote will continue to count for them in subsequent rounds. But if they get eliminated, if you want a say in terms of the remaining candidates, you have to indicate a “next-favorite”. If you really have no preference among the remaining candidates, you can stop ranking. Again, that’s like abstaining from the next runoff.

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Can I give different candidates the same ranking?

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No. When the ballot scanner reads multiple candidates ranked the same, it will not count your ballot.

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Does it hurt my favorite candidate to have a 2nd choice?

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No, your 2nd (or 3rd, 4th, or 5th) choices will only come into play if your 1st choice is defeated in any round.

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How are ranked choice ballots counted?

 

To win, a candidate must receive at least a majority of the total votes counted. A majority is 50% of the total, plus one vote.

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After all the votes (including mail ballots) are received , counters will tally only the first-choice votes. If no candidate wins a majority based on first-choice votes, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is defeated, and the second choices from each voter whose candidate was defeated are reallocated as if they were first choices. 

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We repeat the process until we are down to the last two candidates. In each round, the candidate now in last place is defeated, and the next choice votes on those ballots are redistributed. If the second choice on those ballots has already lost, the voter’s third choice is redistributed, and so on. The process is repeated until the top vote-getter of the final two candidates is declared the winner.

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Won’t it take longer to announce the winner because so many rounds must be calculated?

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​No.  The computer tabulation of the Instant Runoff Voting rounds is almost instantaneous.  Any delay in determining the final winner comes from the delays in processing mail-in and provisional ballots, and is the same as for our current voting method. 

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Can a candidate game the system?

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It is virtually impossible to game an Instant Runoff Voting election. Voters are generally able to figure out when a candidate is misleading them to gain an unearned ranking.  Other candidates will be sure to set the record straight regarding the deceptive candidate’s real record.

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Is ranked voting too confusing? How will this affect seniors and low-information voters?

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Ranking is intuitive and natural. We do it every day. The data shows voters of all races, ages, and backgrounds understand how to rank, enjoy the option to rank, and have no increase in confusion about the ballot. In New York City recently, voters of all ages, races, and geographies thought ranked voting was simple.

 

How will this affect turnout in Redondo Beach elections?

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In some places that implemented ranked voting, turnout increased immensely. A 2020 study by Eamon McGinn of the University of Technology Sydney finds that ranked choice voting caused a 9.6 percentage point increase in turnout in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. A survey of the data shows that Instant Runoff Voting does not adversely affect turnout compared to our current system.

We hope that ranked voting will be paired with meaningful voter engagement and education programs that encourage people to look deeper at why we vote, what else we can do, how the system works, and how our vote can have more power.