Naturalized citizens and permanent residents support ranked choice voting and proportional representation
71% of respondents said they understand ranked choice voting, and 81% reported they would support using ranked choice voting in their area.
FairVote strives to make democracy more functional and representative for every American. We launched the New Citizens Project to understand attitudes toward our reforms among naturalized citizens and those on the path to citizenship.
Naturalized citizens and permanent residents are historically underrepresented in political office. Our goal was to understand what may increase new citizens’ propensity to vote and their likelihood to support ranked choice voting and proportional ranked choice voting.
Sample Characteristics
People from 43 states responded to our survey, with the most responses coming from California, Florida, Texas, and New York. Respondents came from 103 countries of origin, with the most common countries being Mexico, Spain, and China.
Respondents ranged from 18 to 80 years old. Just over half of the respondents were people of color or multiracial.
More men completed the survey than women, and 75% of the respondents reported having a college degree, whether that be an associates, bachelors, or higher.
Findings
Ranked Choice Voting
71% of respondents said they understand ranked choice voting. After being asked to rank 2024 presidential candidates, 68% of respondents said ranking was easy. 81% said they would support using ranked choice voting in their area. The groups who indicated the most support for ranked choice voting are Black respondents and Hispanic or Latino respondents.
We asked respondents if they would be more likely to vote if they could use RCV in their area.
51% of White respondents, 67% of Black respondents, and 50% of respondents aged 65 or older said they would be more likely to vote, compared to 28%, 16%, and 25% of respondents from those groups who said they would be less likely to vote, respectively.
Proportional Representation
72% of respondents would support proportional representation in their area. 42% of people who have voted in a country with proportional representation said it is more fair than winner-take-all elections, compared to 24% of people who have not voted in a country with proportional representation. Groups who are most supportive of proportional representation are Hispanic or Latino respondents, Asian or Asian American respondents, and respondents aged 50 and older.
Methodology
In May 2023, we surveyed naturalized citizens and permanent residents about these topics. To incentivize people to take the survey, and as a consideration of their time, we offered $10 to the first 500 respondents.
The survey was available in six languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Haitian Creole, Mandarin Chinese, and Tagalog. With the help of community members, we formed an Oversight Committee to help design, implement, and analyze the survey. Our primary target areas were New York City, Miami, and San Francisco due to the large number of immigrations and naturalizations that occur in them. However, the survey was digital, allowing people anywhere in the United States to complete it.
Survey outreach was performed on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, both by FairVote and by members of the Committee. Additionally, targeted emails and text messages were sent to community leaders and organizations serving naturalized citizens and permanent residents.
Conclusion
We hope this data will encourage community leaders and elected officials to support ranked choice voting in cities and states with large populations of new citizens. Ranked choice voting is already shown to save money, increase participation from military and overseas voters, and increase representation for women and people of color. These new findings demonstrate that it is also attractive to new citizens and people on the path to citizenship, a key growing block of new voters in the U.S., and even has the potential to increase turnout among this group.
We’ll release more findings from this survey in an upcoming update to our Ranked Choice Voting Elections Benefit Communities of Color report.
Acknowledgements and additional resources
Special thanks to the members of the Oversight Committee (Stephanie Lopez, German Figureoa, Hans Huang, Esther Park, Raquel Baudrit, and Qin Huang) for their work on the New Citizens Project!
The project was also informed by existing research from More Equitable Democracy, Democracy Rising, MinKwon, the New York Immigration Coalition, Community & Naturalization Organizer Dulce Gutierrez, Abraham Sanchez at ProgressNow New Mexico, and Comunidades Unidas. You can find their reports at the following links:
Effective Voter Mobilization Messaging
Examining Attitudes of Spanish Speaking Communities on Democracy, Representation, and Ranked Choice Voting (Spanish version here)
You can watch a debrief on the reports above here.
