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Ranked Choice Voting
WHY RANKED CHOICE VOTING?
FairMakes sure everyone's voices are included in the final round by allowing them to rank choices, thus ensuring a true majority winner. | eliminates the "spoiler effect"Potential candidates won't have to worry about "spoiling" an election by taking a percentage of the final vote. | civil & issue focused campaignsCandidates are more likely to run civil campaigns when second and third choice votes are at stake. | reduced costsBy eliminating the need for a separate runoff election, ranked choice voting saves time, money, and energy. |
Ranked choice voting history in Utah
Almost 20 years ago, Ranked Choice Voting, also known as Instant Runoff Voting was introduced to Utah's Republican and Democratic political parties.
At caucuses and conventions, delegates saw ranked choice voting in action. Benefits in the party process included a much shorter day because delegates and neighbors only had to vote once and winners garnered majorities of the vote.
Grassroots movement to expand ranked choice voting use
This led to a grassroots movement to use ranked choice voting in public elections in Utah. For multiple years, bills were introduced in the Utah legislature to use ranked choice voting more widely.
Ranked choice voting pilot
On March 13, 2018, Governor Gary Herbert signed Utah House Bill 35 ( HB0035) allowing municipalities to pilot ranked choice voting or instant runoff voting. The bill passed with an overwhelming majority of 22-0 in the Senate, 67-3 in House; 11-1 in interim committee, and 7-0 in Senate Government Operations.
House Bill 35 allows municipal elections to use ranked choice voting. The pilot runs from 2019 to 2026.
You can contact your city council to encourage them to pilot ranked choice voting in upcoming elections.
Here’s how it works - it’s all about more options for voters:
Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank the candidates they like best in order of choice while still giving them the option to choose just one candidate.
A candidate wins outright if ranked first by more than half of the voters. Otherwise, the candidate in last place with the fewest first choices is eliminated, and voters who ranked that candidate as their “number 1” will have their votes count for their next ranked choice. This process continues until a candidate wins with more than half of the votes.
Instead of choosing just one person on your congressional ballot, you rank all of them in order of preference. If someone earns more than half the votes, they win, just like any other election. If not, the person with the fewest is eliminated and everyone who picked that person as ‘number 1’ has their votes count for their second choices. This continues until someone has a majority of votes.
This means no more candidates winning without majority support. It also ends eliminates vote-splitting and spoiler candidates. Instead, voters feel free to choose who they really like - as many as they like- knowing their choices truly count toward electing their representative.