Proportional RCV improves diversity in Albany, and voters embrace it
Albany, California used proportional ranked choice voting (RCV) for the first time in 2022. This Bay Area city adopted proportional RCV two years ago with 73% of voters supporting the measure after it was referred to the ballot by the city council.
Albany previously elected city councilors using “block plurality voting,” a method that can allow one cohesive bloc of voters to control every city council seat, leading to concerns that some groups of voters were being shut out.
Used widely around the world and in a growing number of American cities, proportional RCV (sometimes known as “single transferable vote”), enables most voters to reliably elect a candidate they support. Proportional RCV awards a majority of seats to the majority faction of voters, but also provides a fair number of seats for minority factions, too. Albany elected two of its five council members this year, and will elect the remaining three in 2024.
In Albany’s first proportional RCV election, voters elected two city councilors from a field of five candidates: John Miki and Robin López. Both candidates are people of color and represent different areas of the city. Miki is Asian American and from the Southeastern part of Albany, while López is Latino and lives in University Village. Both campaigned as part of a slate called Albany Forward, along with former city councilor Nick Pilch. The success of two candidates from the same slate demonstrates the strong support for this policy platform. Proportional RCV allowed the slate to run more candidates than there were seats available, giving the voters more voice in which Albany Forward candidates would succeed.
See the RCV results
With only two seats, the share of votes needed to win is just over a third of the vote – that’s the fewest number of voters that ensure two candidates will win but no more than two. In the first round, several candidates earned a substantial vote share but none crossed the 33% threshold needed to earn a seat.
Last-place candidate Jeremiah Gartett-Pinguelo was eliminated. Voters who chose Gartett-Pinguelo as “number one” had their ballot count for their next choice.
In round 2, there were still no candidates across the 33% threshold. The last-place candidate Nick Pilch was eliminated and Pilch voters’ ballots were transferred to those voters’ next choice. John Miki earned the most transfer ballots.
After the ballot transfer, John Miki crossed the threshold of 33% so he won one of the two seats. Next, Miki’s “surplus votes” will be transferred to those voters’ next choice. Miki earned more than he needed to win, so a fraction of each vote is transferred to ensure every ballot counts for its full value.
In the fourth round, Robin López had enough votes to cross the 33% threshold and won the second seat. When Miki’s surplus ballots were transferred in round 3, a majority transferred to López, allowing López to maintain his lead.
If this has been one of the years when voters elect three councilors, Hansen-Romero would have earned the third seat.
How did the winners build their coalitions?
In a two-winner proportional RCV race, the threshold to win a seat is 33.3% + 1 vote. Both candidates who crossed that threshold won a seat, but how did they get there?
The chart below shows the source of each ballot that made up the winning candidates’ coalitions. Miki got a larger share of his ballots from first-choice preferences, while López earned a larger share from transfer ballots, indicating broad support even from supporters of other candidates.
How “deep” was the support for each candidate?
With ranked choice data, we can look beyond just who won to examine how voters used the ranked ballot. This chart shows how often each candidate was ranked first, how often ranked second, and so on.
Third-place finisher Hansen-Romero has a similar number of first-choice and second-choice preferences to Robin López, but Hansen-Romero falls behind once considering later preferences and has significantly more last-choice preferences than the winning candidates.
How many candidates did voters choose to rank?
Voters in Albany embraced ranked ballots, with 93% of voters choosing to rank multiple candidates. Voters ranked an average of 4 candidates out of 5.
| First choice candidate | Mean Unique Rankings Used | % of voters who ranked a single candidate | % of voters who ranked the maximum of 5 candidates |
| Any first choice candidate | 3.966 | 7% | 53% |
| John Anthony Miki | 4.01 | 4% | 49% |
| Robin D López | 4.201 | 5% | 62% |
| Jennifer Hansen-Romero | 3.63 | 15% | 47% |
| Nick Pilch | 4.066 | 4% | 54% |
| Jeremiah Garrett Pinguelo | 4.051 | 11% | 63% |
