A New Year's Eve election? Santa Clara County runoff could be replaced with ranked choice voting.

For most Americans, politics will be the last thing on our minds as we prepare to ring in the new year. But voters in Santa Clara County, CA will vote in a special runoff election for county assessor on December 30. The runoff is expected to cost $13 million, and turnout will likely drop precipitously – problems that ranked choice voting (RCV) would solve.

The Santa Clara County runoff was triggered because no candidate earned a majority of the vote in the general election on November 4. Voters in the county, which is home to 2 million people and includes San Jose, will now choose between the top two finishers from that race: Los Altos Councilwoman Neysa Fligor and former Saratoga Councilman Rishi Kumar.

Turnout declines in runoffs are nothing new; recent research on primary runoffs finds an average 40% turnout drop from initial elections to runoffs. 81% of winners earn fewer votes in the runoff than they did in the initial election. 

But the timing of this runoff – smack in the middle of the holidays – means it could be far worse than usual. The likely abysmal turnout, coupled with the $13 million price tag, means voters are paying more for less.

This high cost and turnout decline is preventable, however. Santa Clara County could follow the example of nearby cities – including San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley – that use ranked choice voting. RCV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, with an “instant runoff” identifying a majority winner if no candidate receives a majority of first-choice support. 

RCV is a faster, cheaper alternative to delayed runoff elections. With RCV, voters wouldn’t need to cast a second ballot for the same office – much less the day before New Year’s Eve – and taxpayers wouldn’t have to cover the cost of a second election. RCV would also help prevent the predictable decline in voter turnout that accompanies runoffs – letting all voters weigh in on a single, high-turnout Election Day. 

Notably, Santa Clara County’s registrar of voters estimates that implementing ranked choice voting would only cost $4 million for the first election cycle: $2.7 million in one-time voter education, and $1.3 million for ongoing costs. In other words, using RCV in this election would have saved county taxpayers $9 million.

Santa Clara County residents voted to adopt RCV for county elections in 1998, and there have been renewed efforts to implement it in recent years. In 2023, California’s legislature passed a bill granting the county explicit authorization to use the reform. According to a 2023 poll, 64% of Santa Clara County voters support using RCV in county and local elections.

CalRCV is leading an effort to bring RCV to Santa Clara County; visit its website to learn more.