Q&A: Voting Law Expert Promotes Ranked Choice Voting
By: Robert Sisco
Pedro Hernandez is the Senior Policy Coordinator for FairVote, where he protects voting rights and promotes ranked choice voting. He helped implement the first use of Proportional Representation as a remedy under the Federal Voting Rights Act.
Q: In basic terms for the general population, what is single-seat Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and what would it look like if implemented in the Democratic Primary Process?
Ranked choice voting (RCV) makes it easier for voters to express a preference not only for one candidate but also other candidates they might support. Under RCV, if no candidate receives a majority (50%+1) of first choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is defeated, and votes for that candidate are counted for those voter's next choices until someone receives a majority of votes. It's a proven approach -- it's been used in Australia and Ireland for nearly a century, and has been adopted by over 20 jurisdictions in the U.S. including San Francisco, Oakland, Minneapolis, and just recently New York. Ranked choice voting is advancing to other cities and states, too. Maine now holds RCV elections for federal elections, and five states are using ranked ballots as part of the democratic primary process.
In the states using RCV for the democratic primary, the rules look a little different. The Democratic National Committee has a 15% threshold for delegate allocation. Under RCV, candidates below that threshold are eliminated, and votes for those eliminated candidates are counted for the next viable choice. This realignment of votes is familiar to state voters who participate in caucuses. In Nevada, voters were allowed to participate in the caucus by casting an early vote with a ranked ballot. This makes it possible for more voters to participate without having to attend an all day Saturday caucus.
Q: The Democratic Primary Process in the 72 hours before Super Tuesday has been quite the roller coaster. Joe Biden propelled into the frontrunner position. Possibly due to Buttigieg and Klobuchar dropping out and endorsing him, making Biden a top 2nd or 3rd choice candidate. How does that compare with RCV?
If we had RCV in all state primaries, campaigns would campaign differently. Under RCV, candidates would be striving to court the second choice votes of other candidates. Thus, less negative attacks. Voters don’t like negative campaigns. Interestingly, we saw a lot of campaigns engage with supporters of other campaigns in Nevada, which made the discourse much more civil.
RCV also accommodates more candidates in the race because it mitigates the possibility of vote splits. Under RCV, it’s possible that voters would have been able to continue to learn about these candidates' ideas and values.
Q: Several, if not most people now mail in their ballot days before election day. With Buttigieg and Klobuchar dropping out only days before Super Tuesday, anyone who voted for them by mail has essentially become a wasted vote. If RCV was on the ballot, what would’ve happened to their votes?
The impact of candidates suspending their campaigns before Super Tuesday is that many voters had already voted and were not afforded an opportunity to cast a ballot for a different viable candidate. If an early voter supported Buttigieg, their vote stopped being relevant as soon as Buttigieg dropped out of the race. In fact, over a million votes on Super Tuesday will be effectively wasted. If that Buttigieg supporter had been able to use RCV, then their vote could have counted for their next viable choice and still have a voice in the election.
Q: Delegates are currently split among top candidates that get over 15% of the votes. Would RCV in this process maintain the delegate system or replace it?
The Democratic Party has used ranked ballots to continue to allocate delegates. It’s not much different in how the caucuses function -- except votes could participate without having to attend an all day event. Making democracy more accessible for all, is something that improves the system generally.
Q: Buttigieg previously won Iowa. What happens to his delegates now? What would happen under RCV?
The Democratic Party has its own rules for handling delegates of suspended campaigns. Ranked Choice Voting is only one aspect of that process, where we’re able to get more information on what voters would prefer as their next choice.
Q: Form of RCV used in Nevada’s primary. What can we learn from that?
Ranked ballots and early voting allowed more people to participate in the state caucus. It encouraged voters to support the candidates they support, since many voters felt divided about who to support. It was the first time Nevada used ranked ballots statewide, and while there were some issues around what voters could and could not do on their ballots, we saw very few voter errors and votes being thrown out. More people being able to participate in outcomes is a good thing for democracy, and I think people are looking at the experience in a positive light.
Q: In Oct. 2019, CA Senate and Assembly overwhelmingly passed a bill that would’ve allowed RCV through the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed saying, “Ranked choice is an experiment that has been tried in several charter cities in California. Where it has been implemented, I am concerned that it has often led to voter confusion and that the promise that ranked-choice voting leads to greater democracy is not necessarily fulfilled.” Response?
While we were disappointed by the Governor Newsom’s veto, we are confident that the reform will continue to pick up momentum. As more jurisdictions adopt RCV, both locally and statewide, we hope Governor Newsom gives RCV a second look. Studies and election results show that voters understand how to rank a ballot. There were six times as many ballot errors in the top-two race for Governor than in the RCV election for Mayor in San Francisco, and we continue to see that voters like ranking their ballots. In that mayoral election 86.8% of voters indicated at least two different candidates, and 70% of voters indicated three.
San Francisco also used to hold runoff elections where only three in five voters would return to the December runoff. With RCV, we see many more voters count in a decisive high-turnout election. I believe that deciding elections when turnout is highest is a much more democratic way of holding elections.
(Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the March 2020 [Volume 50, Issue 3] version of The Advocate.)