Fort Colllins Ranked Voting

Q: What is ranked voting?

A: Ranked voting (also called "instant runoff voting," "ranked choice voting" and "preferential voting") is a proven method for electing a winner in a single-seat race, such as Fort Collins Mayor and City Council representatives. It provides an alternative to plurality and runoff elections. In a plurality election, the highest vote-getter wins even if s/he receives less than 5 than 50% in the first round and voters must return to the polls a second time.
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Q: What's wrong with Fort Collins' plurality voting system?

A:Fort Collins' plurality elections undermine accountable government. They allow candidates to be elected even if they are the last choice of a majority of voters. That means an incumbent might do a lousy job, but get re-elected because the opposition splits the majority vote. In turn, that means voters often end up with fewer choices because candidates are "encouraged" not to run out of fear of "spoiling" the election.
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Q: How does ranked voting work?

A: Voters all have one vote, but gain the option to option to indicate their backup choices in case their first choice candidate is in the "spoiler" position. Voters simply rank candidates in their preferred order: 1, 2, 3 and so on. It takes a majority (50% plus one) to win. If a majority of voters rank a candidate first, that candidate is elected. If not, the last place candidate is eliminated, and all ballots are counted again. This time, votes for the defeated candidate are added to the total of the next ranked candidate on each ballot. The process continues until one candidate receives a majority of the votes.
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Q: Isn't this too complex for the average voter?

A: Actually, it's as easy as 1-2-3. All the voter has to do is rank one or more candidates. It's like renting a video or picking an ice cream flavor. At a recent ranked voting campaign event, state Representative John Kefalas asked a girl in the front row to rank her favorite ice cream flavors. When she quickly answered "strawberry, blueberry and lemon," John said "If a four-year-old can do it, then I don't think it's so complicated." Fort Collins has been ranked the fifth smartest city in the US. Voters here can easily figure out how to rank candidates in order and fill in their ballots, just as they have in a wide range of cities around the country.
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Q: Doesn't this give extra votes to supporters of defeated candidates?

A: Not at all. In each round, every voter's ballot counts for exactly one candidate. You vote for your favorite candidate in the first round. If your candidate advances to the second round, you keep supporting that candidate. If not, your vote counts instead for your highest ranked candidate still in contention. At each step of the ballot counting, every voter has exactly one vote for a continuing candidate. That's why courts have consistently upheld the constitutionality of ranked voting and dismissed all challenges that it violates "one person, one vote."
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Q: Does ranked voting avoid the "spoiler" problem?

A: Yes, and that encourages more candidates to run for office. In multiple-candidate races, like-minded constituencies such as students, Latinos, liberals, conservatives, etc. can split their vote among their own competing candidates, allowing a candidate opposed by the majority to win. Ranked voting allows voters to rank all of their candidates and watch as votes transfer to their candidate with the most support. Ranked voting eliminates the possibility of a "minor" candidate "spoiling" the race by taking enough votes from one major candidate to elect the other. With ranked voting, candidates will not feel like they have to drop out of city council and mayoral races to avoid splitting the vote, as they have done this year, in 2009 and other election cycles. Ranked voting will help expand the range of candidates and ideas heard in city elections.
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Q: Would it cost Fort Collins a lot of money to switch to ranked voting?

A: No. Fort Collins does not own its own voting equipment, but leases them every two years for elections, so no hardware or software needs to be replaced. Fort Collins already uses all mail-in ballots centrally counted, so no change is needed beyond using readily available software to tabulate and sort voter rankings. The cost could be the same, slightly less or slightly more than current elections, and well worth it considering the many benefits of ranked voting. We also would have the option to do a simple hand-count in races without a first round majority winner, as Minneapolis did in 2009 when electing far more offices than we have in Fort Collins.
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Q: Does ranked voting affect voter turnout positively?

A: Often, although there is no guarantee. Ranked voting gives every voter more incentive to participate because your vote still counts even if your first choice candidate is defeated. As a general matter, however, the biggest reason for turnout is voters having a meaningful choice. Ranked voting made it easy for four candidates to run for mayor of Aspen in 2009 in a competitive race, helping lead to its highest turnout in its history. But Minneapolis had relatively low turnout in its first ranked voting election because few races were competitive.
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Q: Does ranked voting affect campaign debate?

A: Yes. Because candidates may need second and third choice votes to win, they have incentive to focus more on the issues, to attract voters to their positions and to form coalitions. Negative campaigning and personal attacks are much less effective in a ranked voting election. San Francisco is having a highly competitive election for mayor this year. David Chiu, the president of its Board of Supervisors and winner of a highly competitive ranked voting race for the board in 2008, said last month "I think Instant Runoff Voting is a system that will foster a positive campaign. I think it's a system that will give our residents multiple choices and I look forward to campaigning under ranked choice voting. I have reached out to candidates and we're all looking forward to, hopefully, a very positive campaign."
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Q: Where is ranked voting used?

A: Many places, and the list is growing. Internationally, ranked voting has a long history. Ireland uses ranked voting to elects its president, Australia to elect its House of Representatives, and London to elect its mayor. In the US, ranked voting is used in San Francisco, Oakland, San Leandro and Berkeley, California, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Takoma Park, Maryland, and for certain elections in North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas. Cities that will soon use ranked voting include Memphis, Tennessee, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and later this year Telluride, Colorado, Portland, Maine and St. Paul, Minnesota. The Utah Republican Party often uses ranked voting to fill state office vacancies, including three times since 2008. The Academy Awards just used ranked voting to select the Best Picture winner. Many major universities use ranked voting for student government elections. The American Political Science Association and hundreds of organizations use ranked voting to elect their leaders.
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Q: Does ranked voting give an advantage to certain groups?

A: Ranked voting advantages the majority, since it ensures that a minority of voters can never defeat a candidate supported by a majority. It also gives the voter more power, since s/he can express a range of choices. As CSU political science professor John Straayer noted, ranked voting does not inherently advantage or disadvantage any political party, ideology, or group.
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Q: Who opposes ranked voting?

A: Political interests that benefit from any election system generally oppose changing that system. Other groups that might actually benefit from ranked voting may oppose new ideas out of fear and misinformation. Some opponents active on the Internet (few in number, but very persistent) include advocates of other election reforms, who see ranked voting as competing with their preferred reform ideas. Election officials are also understandably cautious about a system that may increase their workload and with which they do not have experience.
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Q: If ranked voting is so great, why did Aspen and "many other places" stop using it?

A: Aspen invented its own unique "hybrid" method to mimic the traditional way they elected two at-large council reps at the same time. In retrospect, this may have been a mistake. Even though election officials say the election went well and they enjoyed a record turnout, the losing mayoral candidate and her allies raised such a fuss that it turned off many voters. As former city councilman Jack Johnson explains, "insinuation and innuendo were the order of the day and no claim was too outrageous (or demonstrably incorrect) to be thrown to cast doubt on the council, city staff or the process." Aspen voters adopted ranked voting in the first place to reduce controversy, improve civic dialogue, and shorten election season, and opponents made sure voters received none of these benefits. An initial advisory measure to keep ranked voting lost by just seven votes, then a binding measure to return to traditional runoffs passed easily. Since the modern revival of interest in ranked voting after the 2000 election, only three places have repealed it, while far more places have continue to use it.. In each repeal, there were unique local factors that caused voters to return to a traditional runoff system. No city has moved from ranked voting to the plurality system Fort Collins uses, in which there is no minimum percentage of votes needed to be elected to office.
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Q: If ranked voting passes, when will it first be used in Fort Collins?

A: The April 2013 city election would be the first one conducted using ranked voting.
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