On June 16, Washington, DC voters used ranked choice voting (RCV) for the first time. Today, the DC Board of Elections released preliminary round-by-round RCV tallies for each race. DC allows mail ballots to arrive up to 10 days after Election Day, and the Board of Elections will release updated RCV results as ballots continue to arrive.

With RCV, District elections will see majority winners, and voters will have a greater voice in crowded races. In both races that went to RCV counts, 71% of voters whose first choice was eliminated had their ballot count for one of the finalists — including about 30,000 voters in the at-large Democratic Council primary. 

The data also shows that voters handled RCV well; in the Democratic mayoral primary, 99.6% of voters cast a valid ballot. Learn more about voter education efforts from the DC Board of Elections, Rank the District, and others in this post.

Below are the preliminary results of key races.

Races that went to an RCV count

In two Democratic DC Council primaries, no candidate received a majority of first choices. The winners of both races will be determined by RCV counts.

Preliminary at-large primary results

Nine candidates ran in the at-large primary. Oye Owolewa seems poised to win, with an unclear but likely small number of ballots still to be counted.

As of Sunday evening, Owolewa led with 34% of first choices. In a choose-one election, that would have been enough to win. For instance, in 2022, Councilmember Anita Bonds won the primary for this seat with only 36% of first choices. 

However, with ranked choice voting, DC residents will get a majority winner in the race. In the preliminary RCV count, Owolewa grew his support to 51%. He will be heavily favored to win the general election – and if he does, he will enter office with majority support and a clear mandate to lead.

RCVis results display created by the DC Board of Elections

Of voters whose top choice wasn’t one of the three finalists, 71% had their vote count for one of the three finalists. Owolewa was the preferred backup choice of 42%, compared to 35% who preferred Lisa Raymond and 23% who preferred Kevin Chavous. 

With ranked choice voting, roughly 30,000 more voters had their votes count for one of the finalists.

Preliminary Ward 1 primary results

Five candidates ran in the Ward 1 Democratic primary. Aparna Raj led with 47% of first choices, followed by Miguel Trindade Deramo with 21%. 5,263 voters supported one of the other candidates. 

In the RCV count, Raj expanded her support to 52%. In total, 71% of voters who ranked an eliminated candidate first also ranked at least one of the three finalists on their ballot.

RCVis results display created by the DC Board of Elections

Races that did not go to an RCV count

Democratic mayoral primary

The most closely watched race was the Democratic primary for mayor. In the deep-blue District, the winner is all but certain to win the general election.

Councilmember Janesse Lewis George won the primary with 54% of first choices, making an RCV count unnecessary. Her closest competitor, Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, had 36%.

Democratic delegate primary

Five candidates ran in the primary to succeed Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. Councilmember Robert White won with 64% of first choices, followed by Councilmember Brooke Pinto with 21%.

At-large Council special election

Outside of party primaries, there was one special election for an at-large Council seat in which all voters could participate.

Former Councilmember Elissa Silverman won the special election with 55% of first choices. Appointed Councilmember Doni Crawford and Board of Education President Jacque Patterson followed, with 25% and 18% of the vote, respectively.

Ranked choice voting is off to a strong start in DC. We will analyze the detailed ballot data that comes out of this election in the coming weeks, and look forward to seeing how RCV delivers in future elections in November and beyond.