FairVote news update: Apr 10, 2026
We’re excited to share the latest news from the election reform movement – including the launch of a ranked choice voting (RCV) campaign in Sacramento, new articles on RCV in the Chicago Tribune and Houston Chronicle, and a new report on “party preferential voting.”
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The latest election reform news
- Last week, Better Ballot Sacramento began collecting signatures to bring RCV to California’s capital city. If the proposal makes the ballot and is approved by voters, Sacramento would combine its low-turnout primary and general election – with a single November election that uses RCV and gives tens of thousands more voters a real voice in who governs their city. Read more.
- FairVote’s David Daley published opinion pieces in the Chicago Tribune and Houston Chronicle highlighting the local impact of our broken electoral system. (FairVote’s Rachel Hutchinson co-authored the Chicago Tribune article on Illinois.) David also published an article in The Guardian highlighting the impact of uncompetitive elections in Tennessee.
- Yesterday, FairVote and Protect Democracy released a report on party preferential voting. This system combines benefits of proportional ranked choice voting and party-list proportional representation, and reformers who support proportional representation should consider it as part of a menu of options. Read the report.
Spotlight on Sacramento and Arkansas
The ranked choice voting campaign in Sacramento seeks to solve a big problem with turnout in the city’s elections. The two candidates who earn the most votes in the primary advance to the general election. However, if one candidate wins a majority of votes in the primary, that candidate is automatically elected and the general election is cancelled.
In practice, this means races are often decided in the primary alone, when turnout is lower and the electorate is less representative. If Sacramento adopts ranked choice voting, all local races would move to the general election in November – when more people vote.
Sacramento registered voter turnout by year
| Year | Primary election turnout | General election turnout |
| 2020 | 48.61% (128,770) | 78.87% (226,787) |
| 2022 | 38.37% (105,336) | 53.02% (146,188) |
| 2024 | 39.36% (108,005) | 70.32% (199,420) |
Sacramento isn’t the only place where two-round elections have a turnout problem. Just last week, Arkansas Republicans voted in a runoff for secretary of state. Turnout declined a whopping 70%, with just 80,922 voters participating in the runoff compared to 266,237 in the primary. On average, primary runoffs see a 40% turnout drop from the initial election.
Votes in Arkansas primary and runoff
| Candidate | Votes in primary | Votes in runoff | Decline in votes |
| Kim Hammer | 89,076 | 40,920 | 48,156 |
| Bryan Norris | 91,629 | 40,002 | 51,627 |
Ranked choice voting is a better, faster, cheaper alternative to two-round elections. It lets voters make their voices heard in a single, high-turnout Election Day.
