How ranked choice voting is shaping the 2025 elections
Election Day is just around the corner, and voters in 14 cities and counties will use ranked choice voting (RCV)! FairVote’s Deb Otis discusses the upcoming RCV elections in this video, and you can read more below about the races to watch on November 4.
Fort Collins, CO
This year, Fort Collins, CO will use RCV for the first time in several competitive races: Seven candidates are running in the open-seat mayoral race, while Council Districts 1 and 3 have three candidates each.
Several mayoral candidates have shared how RCV is improving the election. District 3 Councilor Tricia Canonico said 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 [rancour] out of our local politics.
District 6 Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Emily Francis said:
Ranked choice voting is such a great opportunity for Fort Collins. It gets more people involved in running for office… you have more choice.
In a campaign video, small business owner Adam Eggleston shared how RCV encourages consensus and helps independents break into the political sphere.
Fort Collins candidates know they may need to earn backup-choice support from voters to win, so they’re actively reaching out to voters who support other candidates. For example, at a candidate forum, Francis and Canonico both asked voters to rank them second if they were not the voters’ first choice.
To support RCV in the Centennial State, visit RCV for Colorado and Courageous Colorado.
Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey faces 14 challengers in his bid for re-election. Because Minneapolis uses RCV, voters won’t be punished for having so many choices: They can freely vote their conscience, and rank backup choices in case their top choice can’t win. The winner will have support from a majority of voters without a costly, low-turnout runoff – giving them a strong mandate to lead.
RCV also incentivizes candidates to show common ground with one another, and reach out to voters who support someone else as their first choice. For example, three of Frey’s challengers – State Senator Omar Fateh, community advocate Jazz Hampton, and Reverend Dr. DeWayne Davis – have cross-endorsed each other and are campaigning together as the “slate for change.”
Minnesota’s capital, St. Paul, also has a mayoral race this year. Incumbent Melvin Carter – the first Black mayor of St. Paul, who was elected in the city’s first open mayoral election using RCV in 2017 – will face four challengers. As in Minneapolis, St. Paul voters will be able to vote their conscience without worrying about spoilers because of RCV.
(Compare these races to the current New York City mayoral election, which has three major candidates and has been dominated by conversation of “spoilers” and which candidates should drop out to avoid splitting the vote.)
To learn more about RCV’s impact in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, check out these reports from FairVote Minnesota.
Santa Fe, NM
New Mexico’s capital and third-largest city of Santa Fe will use RCV in its local elections. For the first time since 2018, the city has an open-seat mayoral election – only its second since moving to RCV.
Eight candidates are running for mayor. In a recent interview with the Santa Fe New Mexican, candidate Michael Garcia was asked about concerns that he might split the vote with rivals Ron Trujillo and JoAnne Vigil Coppler; Garcia explained how RCV addresses vote-splitting and encouraged voters to rank multiple candidates.
The mayoral election will be pivotal for housing, particularly in the redevelopment of the Midtown Campus area – and whether to focus on building affordable housing or reducing regulations to increase the housing supply. With RCV, voters who favor one housing approach do not need to worry about their preferred candidates splitting the vote. Voters will be able to pick their favorite candidate, and rank other candidates who share their stance.
Notably, RCV is also used in New Mexico’s second-largest city – Las Cruces – but not in the largest city, Albuquerque. Albuquerque uses runoffs to deliver a majority winner, but its last runoff in 2023 saw a 38% decline in turnout. The winner received fewer votes than in the general election. Ranked choice voting offers a faster, cheaper, more representative alternative.
To support RCV in the Land of Enchantment, visit Common Cause New Mexico.
Cambridge, MA
Cambridge has used RCV for its municipal elections since 1941, the longest-running use of RCV in the United States. Specifically, Cambridge uses the proportional form of RCV to choose its City Council and School Committee, ensuring those bodies represent a broad range of voters.
Candidates in Cambridge usually run as part of slates – groups of candidates who are aligned on issues and may choose to campaign together. Slates can be formed by candidates choosing to work together, or can come in the form of endorsements from local organizations.
Slates typically represent different perspectives on local issues, giving voters an easy way to tell which candidates share their values. For instance, the Cambridge Citizens Coalition opposes citywide upzoning – which would allow for higher-density development – so voters will know that the candidates it endorses likely oppose that policy as well. Cambridge Bicycle Safety supports more bike lanes, A Better Cambridge focuses on building more housing, and so on.
This year, four candidates have formed their own “repeal slate” and cross-endorsed each other. These candidates committed to repealing recently passed citywide upzoning rules.
The School Committee election also has an unusual dynamic this year, as the Cambridge Education Association – the city’s largest teachers union – has not endorsed a single incumbent. Instead, the Association has endorsed a slate of six challengers – several of whom were part of a “Solidarity Squad” that sought greater public input into the Cambridge School District budget after the shuttering of Kennedy-Longfellow School earlier this year.
With winner-take-all elections, it’s likely that one faction or another – those supporting the incumbents or those opposed – would win every seat and lock the other side out of representation. But with proportional RCV, the Cambridge School Committee will likely see some incumbents reelected and others defeated, giving a voice on the committee to almost all voters.
To learn more about RCV in the Bay State, visit Voter Choice Massachusetts.
Ranked choice voting voter education
Candidates and city governments alike are doing their part to educate voters on how to rank the vote. Here are just a few examples:
- City and county governments have produced web pages, practice ballots, and videos to help voters make the most of their rankings in the upcoming elections. Several of the videos show how RCV works with creative examples – such as ranking fruits in a Las Cruces video, and ranking local activities in a Fort Collins video.
- Several cities have conducted voter education efforts in multiple languages to make RCV accessible for all voters. Minneapolis, for instance, produced RCV guides in five languages – including Somali and Hmong.
- In Salt Lake City, UT, City Council District 3 candidates David Berg and Chris Warton put RCV explainers on their campaign websites.
RCV ballot measure in Greenbelt, MD
FairVote is also keeping an eye on Greenbelt, MD, where voters will weigh in on adopting ranked choice voting for local elections. Passing this advisory measure would send a strong signal that Greenbelt voters want RCV; it will then be up to the City Council to follow the voters’ will and enact the change.
I am thrilled that Greenbelt residents will have an opportunity to move ranked choice voting forward this November. I look forward to Greenbelt becoming the next city in Maryland to give voters more choice and a stronger voice with ranked choice voting.
– Ranked Choice Voting Maryland Executive Director Michelle Whittaker
Visit Ranked Choice Voting Maryland to learn more about Greenbelt’s RCV ballot measure.
Conclusion
From Minnesota to Massachusetts to New Mexico, RCV is having an impact on local elections and delivering on its promises of more voter choice and better representation.
Voters in these states join the millions in New York, California, and Minnesota who have already voted in municipal elections using RCV this year.
For more information on the cities and counties using RCV this November (and throughout 2025), see FairVote’s 2025 Elections Fact Sheet.
