All About Ranked Choice Voting

Congratulations! If you are a resident of Bloomington, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, St. Louis Park or St. Paul, your city uses ranked choice voting for municipal elections.

In each city, RCV replaced the old primary-general election system with a single higher turnout and more diverse election in November. Before RCV, the cities held early August primaries for which as few as 3% of voters turned out. RCV accomplishes in a single, less costly, and more inclusive election what used to be done in two. The result has been higher voter participation, more diverse candidates, more civil campaigns, and happier voters.

Ranked choice voting is a simple but powerful way to vote that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference and ensures winners with a majority or the highest support possible in a single, decisive and cost-effective election. In ranked choice elections, voters rank as many or as few candidates as they like from their favorite to least favorite: first choice, second choice, and so on.

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Ranking Your Ballot

Filling out your ballot using Ranked Choice Voting is easy: Simply indicate your first choice candidate in the first column, your second choice in the second column, and so on. Remember that the more candidates you rank, the more power your ballot will have. 

There is no way to vote strategically using RCV. Voting only for one candidate or the same candidate more than once, will not improve that candidate’s chances of winning.

Best practice is for voters to rank as many candidates as they like and as long as they have a preference between candidates.

Why Rank Your Ballot?

It’s very important to rank as many candidates as you like (up to the maximum allowed on your city’s ballot):

  • You have more choices and more power – use it!

  • By ranking all your choices, you maximize the power of your vote.

  • If your favorite or first choice candidate doesn’t have enough votes to win, your vote will continue to count for your second and subsequent choices, and you still have a say in who’s elected.

  • You can vote your conscience without worrying that you’re wasting your vote.

  • Voting only for one candidate or the same candidate more than once, will not improve that candidate’s likelihood of winning.

  • If you vote for only one candidate, and that candidate is defeated in the first round of counting, you have lost your opportunity to weigh in on the remaining candidates, and your ballot won’t continue to the final round.

There are no downsides to ranking candidates:

  • Ranking a second, third, etc. choice will never hurt your favorite candidate.

  • Your vote counts for your second choice only if your first choice is eliminated. Your vote counts for your third choice only if your first and second choices are eliminated, and so on.

RCV In single-Seat Elections

Winning a single-seat RCV election requires a candidate to earn support from a majority of voters – 50% + 1. If a candidate earns a majority of first-choice votes then that candidate wins, just like in our current system.

 However, if no candidate receives majority support, then an instant runoff process takes place. In the runoff, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and  their votes now count for their second choices.. This process continues until one candidate reaches a majority and wins.

RCV In Multi-Seat Elections

In multi-seat races,  candidates must reach a winning threshold, depending on the number of seats to fill according to the formula: [1/(# of seats to fill + 1)] + 1 vote. In a two-seat election, the threshold is 33% + 1, in a 3-seat election, the threshold is 25% + 1.  

If no candidate reaches the winning threshold, the last-place finisher is eliminated and those ballots are reallocated to remaining candidates based on those voters’ second choices as described above. If a candidate receives more votes than needed to win, these votes are not wasted but are instead used to help elect the additional seats. For example, if Candidate A receives twice as many votes she needs to win, the unused share of votes (half in this case) are reallocated proportionally to the remaining candidates — half of each ballot cast for A would go on to the second choice on those voters’ ballots. This process continues until candidates reach the winning threshold and all seats are filled.  

RCV provides proportional representation in multi-seat elections and ensures as many voters as possible help elect the candidates. It is the most cost-effective and efficient way to ensure winners have broad voter support, coalesce fragmented groups holding similar views, avoid wasted votes, and eliminate the spoiler effect.

While most jurisdictions use RCV for single-seat elections, a growing number of municipalities are using RCV for multi-seat elections. Minneapolis uses RCV for multi-seat Park Board and Board of Estimate and Taxation elections. As a remedy to a voting rights lawsuit in 2018, Eastpointe, MI adopted RCV for multi-seat city council elections in order to ensure fair representation of the African American community.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Ranked Choice Voting is a simple but powerful way to vote that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference and ensures winners with a majority or the highest support possible in a single, decisive and cost-effective election. In ranked choice elections, voters rank as many or as few candidates as they like from their favorite to least favorite: first choice, second choice, and so on.

  • No. You can rank as many or as few candidates as you like, up to the limit of choices permitted by the final rules of the election. In most local RCV elections, voters can choose up to three choices. The value of ranking is to allow a voter to continue to express their preferences between candidates even if their first choice is eliminated in the instant runoff process. The more a voter ranks, the more power their ballot has in deciding the outcome of the election.

  • First-round election results are available on election night, and all candidates who meet the winning threshold will be reported. For all other races, the results will be decided the following day. St. Paul continues to manually tabulate ballots which is typically completed a few days following the election.

  • No. Voters have the power to rank candidates, but their vote only counts for one candidate in the final round of counting.

    As the Minnesota Supreme Court made clear: Every voter gets an equal vote. In each round of counting, your ballot counts as one vote for your highest-ranked candidate still in the running. If your favorite candidate has been eliminated – just as in a traditional primary election – your choice is limited to one of the remaining candidates, and under RCV, your vote automatically counts for your next choice on the ballot.

  • No. An RCV election may require several instant runoff rounds of counting to determine which candidate has majority support. During that process, a voter’s ballot counts as one vote for their highest-ranked candidate still in the running. All voters’ ballots count equally at every round of voting.

  • No. Your vote counts for your second choice only if your first choice is eliminated. Your vote counts for your third choice only if your first and second choices are eliminated.

  • Whether using a ranked choice ballot or a traditional ballot, mistakes are handled the same way: If you make a mistake on your RCV ballot that would disqualify your ballot (i.e., voting for more than one candidate in the same column), the tabulator would reject your ballot, and you would have an opportunity to correct it.

  • Yes. In 2009, the Minnesota State Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Ranked Choice Voting is constitutional: “Every voter has the same opportunity to rank candidates when she casts her ballot, and in each round every voter’s vote carries the same value.” Minnesota Voters Alliance v. FairVote Minnesota, June 11, 2009. Federal courts have also ruled that RCV meets all tests under the U.S. Constitution.

  • Minnesota’s experience with RCV has been a resounding success. Nearly 600,000 ranked choice ballots have been cast in Minnesota since 2009 when Minneapolis first began using the system. According to exit polls in Minnesota cities using RCV, voters consistently and overwhelmingly report that RCV creates more civil campaigns and is easy to use, liked, and preferred over the old voting system. Voter participation is higher in local elections using RCV by fostering more competitive elections with multiple candidates –– a key driver of voter turnout.

    For more information, visit fairvotemn.org/dashboard.

  • Over 50 jurisdictions across the country use Ranked Choice Voting, including the states of Maine and Alaska and five cities in Minnesota: Minneapolis, Saint Paul, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka, and Bloomington. Six states –– Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina –– use Ranked Choice Voting for military and overseas voters.

    RCV is also used in democracies around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Malta, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and in the city of London, England. Elected officials in India, Nepal and Pakistan use the multi-winner form of RCV to select their national senates and in India, its president.

  • In 2004, the League of Women Voters Minnesota conducted an exhaustive, two-year study of voting systems and reached a consensus that endorsed Ranked Choice Voting as an option for local and state elections in Minnesota.

    In 2006, FairVote Minnesota, with the support of the League of Women Voters Minneapolis, former Minneapolis Mayor Don Fraser and dozens of volunteers, led a grassroots campaign to adopt RCV in Minneapolis that voters approved by a 2-to-1 margin.

  • RCV is a simple, proven change to the ballot that:

    • Gives voters greater voice, choice and power
      Reduces political division and extremism

    • Ensures whoever wins has a majority of voter support
      Fosters more civil campaigns and a more responsive government

    • Promotes more inclusive, diverse and representative elections

    • Eliminates the spoiler problem and wasted votes

    • In local elections, eliminates the costly low-turnout primary and combines the primary and general elections into one election in November when turnout is higher and more representative of the community.

    For full discussion of benefits see: https://www.fairvotemn.org/why/

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