Ranked Choice Voting, the Basics

Ranked choice lets voters order candidates instead of picking one. If no one wins a majority of first choices, the last place candidate is eliminated and their ballots transfer to those voters next choice, repeating until someone passes 50 percent.

It replaces separate runoff elections, rewards coalition building, and can reduce strategic voting, though critics say it is complex and can exhaust ballots. Maine adopted it statewide after 2016, Alaska in 2022, and cities including San Francisco and New York use it.

Variants like the two round runoff remain common across Europe and Latin America..