Election Day 2025: ranked choice voting in action
This Election Day, over 430,000 voters across 14 cities and counties used ranked choice voting (RCV) in their elections. Over 1.6 million voters have used RCV in 2025. Some of those voters shared their views on RCV in the video below:
In choose-one elections, candidates often face pressure to drop out so they don’t “spoil” the race, and voters face pressure to pick a frontrunner rather than vote their conscience. Crowded races may be won without a majority, or contests go to a costly, low-turnout runoff weeks later.
RCV solves the spoiler problem while delivering majority winners. More candidates can run without fear, and voters can rank their favorite candidate “Number 1” without wasting their vote.
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Several of this year’s RCV mayoral races had large and competitive fields: Minneapolis, MN had 15 candidates; St. Paul, MN had five; and Santa Fe, NM had eight. Fort Collins, CO – which used RCV for the first time this year – had seven mayoral candidates. (All data below is as of 12pm Eastern on November 10.)
Notable mayor’s races
Fort Collins, CO
City Councilor Emily Francis won the city’s first RCV mayoral election with 53% of the vote, and Councilor Tricia Canonico came in second.
RCV made more votes count – by letting voters rank their favorite candidate first, and still weigh in between the two strongest candidates; 10,990 voters (21%) ranked someone other than Francis and Canonico as their first choice, but had their vote count for one of the finalists in the RCV count.
Francis and Canonico both praised RCV during the campaign. Francis said that “Ranked choice voting is such a great opportunity for Fort Collins. It gets more people involved in running for office… you have more choice.” Canonico shared that:
We have so many great candidates… It’s really enlightening for people to recognize this isn’t so binary as it is in a regular election and they have more choices… I think RCV is really going to help us keep [rancor] out of our local politics.
St. Paul, MN
In Minnesota’s capital city, Kaohly Her was elected as the city’s first woman and Hmong American mayor. She will serve alongside an all-women City Council – also elected with RCV, and mostly composed of members under 40. In RCV elections across the nation, including in Minnesota, more women and people of color have run for office and won.
Her was one of four candidates challenging incumbent Melvin Carter; voters in St. Paul were able to signal their desire for change without diluting their voices in a crowded field. The tone of the campaign was relatively positive; Carter and Her even campaigned together on Election Day in favor of a city ballot measure.
Though Her narrowly trailed Carter in first-choice support, voters who ranked other challengers preferred Her as a backup choice, and she defeated Carter in a “come-from-behind” victory. 9,218 voters (14%) who ranked someone other than Carter or Her first were still able to express a preference between them; in sum, 93% of St. Paul voters weighed in between the two.
Approximately 68,000 people voted for mayor in St. Paul, the highest turnout for a mayoral election since 1999.
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota’s largest city also saw record-breaking turnout this election cycle. Incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey led with 41.7% of first choices, and won re-election with 53% of votes in the RCV count. Frey built a majority coalition with both deep and broad support; in addition to winning the most first choices, he earned enough backup-choice support to win the race.
The campaign saw a notable case of collaboration between candidates, with three of Frey’s challengers – including second-place finisher Omar Fateh – cross-endorsing each other and campaigning together as part of a “slate for progress.”
Though it wasn’t enough to get Fateh over the finish line, this collaboration likely helped him – as he gained nearly 20,000 votes between the first and final rounds of the RCV count, compared to the 12,000 votes Frey gained. 94% of voters expressed a preference between Frey and Fateh.
Santa Fe, NM
In Santa Fe, NM, voters elected City Councilor Michael Garcia as their next mayor. Garcia led with 36% of voters’ first choices, and won with 63% of votes in the RCV count. Turnout increased slightly over previous elections.
Though only 59% of voters picked one of the top candidates as their first choice, 87% expressed a preference between them in the RCV count. That represents 6,973 Santa Fe voters who had a more powerful voice because of RCV.
65% of those voters preferred Garcia to his strongest opponent, helping him secure victory. Notably, Garcia encouraged voters to rank multiple candidates for mayor in his campaign. Data suggests voters listen to these cues from candidates.
More votes count
Ranked choice voting makes more votes count. If a voter’s first choice can’t win, they can still express their preference among the strongest candidates – an opportunity that choose-one elections do not offer.
In the mayoral elections highlighted above, about 50,000 voters made their voice heard because of RCV. Across the contests, RCV led to an average of 19% more votes making a difference in the outcome.
| City | % of voters who ranked a finalist first | % of voters who weighed in between finalists | Increase in votes counting for a finalist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis, MN | 73% | 94% | 31,042 |
| St Paul, MN | 79% | 93% | 9,218 |
| Fort Collins, CO | 67% | 88% | 10,990 |
| Santa Fe, NM | 59% | 87% | 6,973 |
Along the same lines, Cambridge, MA, voters used proportional RCV to elect their City Council and School Committee. Much like single-winner RCV, proportional RCV makes more votes count, and ensures most voters elect a candidate of their choice. This year, 90% of Cambridge voters ranked a winning candidate for City Council, and 85% ranked a winning candidate for School Committee.
Cities follow best practices, release timely results
Following best practices, most cities that used RCV this November released preliminary RCV results within 24 hours of polls closing. That includes Fort Collins, which released RCV results on election night in its first-ever use of RCV. It also includes St. Paul, which released RCV results on election night for the first time. These cities are building trust with their voters by avoiding unnecessary delays in sharing preliminary counts.
Nearly 80% of RCV cities now release preliminary RCV results within 24 hours of polls closing.
In many cities and states across the country, voters participated in “choose-one” elections mired by the possibility of non-majority winners, vote-splitting between similar candidates, and toxic campaigning. In some places, voters will have to return to the polls later this year – or even early next year – to vote in costly, low-turnout runoffs.
Learn about the upcoming 2025 runoffs, and how RCV could have improved the New York City general election. In an example of how more voters across the country are pursuing better elections, Greenbelt, MD, passed a ballot measure approving RCV by a 2-to-1 margin.