This Sunday, NPR’s All Things Considered broadcast a segment on ranked choice voting (RCV). FairVote’s Research and Policy Director Deb Otis joined as an RCV expert. This is the second national NPR report in two weeks on a FairVote featured reform; the Fair Representation Act was just spotlighted on Morning Edition. 

Host Miles Parks begins the All Things Considered segment by emphasizing RCV’s growth in the U.S. Though it was once considered a “pipe dream,” Parks reports, “voters in 50 American cities and states have decided to switch” to RCV. 

Otis then delves into how (and why) RCV has become the fastest-growing nonpartisan voting reform in the nation: “This method is not a huge change, but in places that use it, it has brought positive impacts. And it tends to start around one or two cities, and then a lot of other cities in that region opt in also,” citing the Bay Area and Minnesota as examples.

The conversation then shifts to RCV’s impact in practice. Otis notes that Alaska’s 2022 adoption pushed RCV further into the national conversation, and Otis and Parks discuss how RCV moved candidates “to playing for a broader and more representative group of voters.”

Turning the conversation to 2024, Parks notes that “the presidential race [is] the easiest example” of how RCV “allows voters to pick their real favorite rather than settling.” 

Otis agrees: “Neighbors won’t be telling their neighbors, oh, you’re wasting your vote if you vote for so-and-so. If a legitimate third-party challenge happens this year, all of the other votes in all the [non-RCV] states are going to have a really hard time with that, trying to navigate what to do, trying to play the strategist and figure out how to make our votes most impactful without harming our side.” 

As demonstrated by this NPR coverage, RCV – and election reform writ large – is making its way into the mainstream national conversation. 

With at least two statewide RCV measures on the ballot next year, this momentum is sure to grow.