Poll shows Bay Area voters like ranked choice voting and are interested in proportional representation
A recent FairVote/SurveyUSA poll of voters in California’s Bay Area found that 70% of voters in cities using ranked choice voting (RCV) want to keep or expand the reform, and 92% understand RCV well. 63% of voters across the Bay Area are interested in exploring additional election reforms at the state and local levels.
This adds to a growing evidence base of survey and ballot data across the country showing that voters both like and understand RCV.
Bay Area voters like and understand ranked choice voting
92% of poll respondents in RCV cities said they understand RCV well or somewhat well, compared to 86% who understand “Top two voting” – which California uses for state and federal elections.
7 of 10 respondents said they want to keep RCV, with 42% saying they want to expand it to even more elections, including California’s statewide elections. 28% said they want to keep RCV for municipal elections only. (Voters in Bay Area cities with RCV currently use RCV only for municipal elections.)
Several other data points capture Bay Area voters’ support for ranked choice voting – 91% of voters in RCV cities said they are confident that their vote counted as intended, and 68% said they are satisfied with RCV. Below is the breakdown of voter satisfaction in the four cities polled that currently use RCV:
| City* | % satisfied with RCV |
|---|---|
| Berkeley | 84% |
| Oakland | 77% |
| San Francisco | 71% |
| San Leandro | 70% |
* Cities were assigned based on zip code
Voters are interested in expanding to other election reforms
63% of voters across the Bay Area – including cities without RCV – expressed interest in proportional RCV, the system recently adopted in Portland, OR. Proportional RCV is a way to make legislatures more representative by electing candidates in proportion to the share of votes a group receives; the system delivers both majority rule and minority voice, and nearly every voter sees at least one candidate ranked on their ballot elected to office.
In Portland’s first election with proportional RCV last year, the city elected a historically diverse and representative government; 85% of voters saw someone they supported elected to the City Council.
When asked about California’s statewide system of top two voting, a plurality of poll respondents said it would be a good thing if, instead of two candidates advancing from the nonpartisan primary to the general election, up to five could advance. This would follow the example set by Alaska, where four candidates advance to a general election with RCV; advancing more than two candidates gives general election voters more meaningful choices on the ballot.
Poll methodology
SurveyUSA interviewed 800 adults from California’s Alameda and San Francisco Counties, from November 11 to November 15, 2024. This research was conducted online. The combined pool of survey respondents was weighted to US Census American Community Survey targets for gender, age, race, and home ownership. The credible interval varies by question, and ranges from 5.2 to 7.3 percentage points. The full poll is available here.