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2022 Ranked Choice Voting Year in Review

January 06, 2023

This report provides an overview of ranked choice voting (RCV) in 2022, highlighting RCV election results and adoptions, with special attention to developments in Alaska and Virginia.

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Introduction

  • A landmark year for ranked choice voting (RCV), 2022 saw RCV’s second statewide implementation, ten new jurisdictions voting “yes” to using RCV in the future, significant state legislative progress, and increasing buy-in from candidates and parties. Highlights include:
    • Over 3 million people had access to RCV ballots in 2022
    • Nearly 700,000 people had access to RCV ballots for the first time in 2022
    • 105 elections used ranked choice voting in 2022
    • Voters in 8 jurisdictions voted to adopt RCV, 2 local governments passed RCV, and Hawaii established RCV for congressional vacancies.
“RCV is the way forward – a way of letting us vote for who we want, rather than just voting against who we don’t. It makes us all better off” – Mary Peltola (D-AK)

Jurisdictions that Held RCV Elections in 2022

Single Winner RCV

  • Maine
  • Alaska (First use!)
  • San Francisco, CA
  • Berkeley, CA
  • Portland, ME
  • Oakland, CA
  • San Leandro, CA
  • Takoma Park, MD
  • Burlington, VT (Renewed use!)
  • Corvallis, OR (First use!)

Multi-winner RCV

  • Arden, DE
  • Albany, CA (First use!)
  • Palm Desert, CA (First use!)
  • Portland, ME

Jurisdictions That Said “Yes!” To RCV in 2022

“Have a list of 5 (reforms) you want to do, but put ranked choice voting first!” – Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University

  • This year, voters in 8 jurisdictions passed ballot measures to adopt RCV, and 2 jurisdictions adopted RCV via ordinance. Two additional states implemented RCV in some capacity. Virginia Republicans used RCV to pick nominees in several congressional elections, including a special election in the 4th Congressional District. FairVote Action was able to donate and spend more than $750,000 in support of these victories.
  • Nevada voters said YES to adopting top-5 primaries and RCV general elections statewide. Under Nevada state law, the measure must pass again in 2024 to take effect because it is a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment.
  • Seattle, Washington voters said YES to using RCV in its primaries. First, voters were asked if they wanted to change how city primaries are run, and they voted yes. Next, voters were asked if they would prefer to use RCV or approval voting, and they picked RCV in a landslide.
  • Portland, Oregon voters said YES to RCV, and will now be the largest American city to use the proportional form of RCV.
  • Multnomah County, Oregon voters said YES to adopting RCV for county elections. Most of Portland is located in this county.
  • Portland, Maine voters said YES to authorize its city council to adopt the proportional form of RCV. The city already uses winner-take-all RCV for those elections.
  • Evanston, Illinois voters said YES to RCV with a landslide of 82% in favor. Evanston will be the first city in Illinois to use RCV for all voters.
  • Fort Collins, Colorado voters said YES to RCV.
  • Ojai, California voters said YES to RCV.
  • The Arlington, Virginia County Board said YES to using RCV in its upcoming county primaries.
  • The Corvallis, Oregon City Council said YES to using RCV in elections for Mayor and City Council, as well as advisory questions with three to five options.
  • Georgia implemented RCV ballots for overseas voters in its state and federal runoff elections in 2022, becoming the sixth southern state with this practice.
  • Pennsylvania Democrats enacted RCV to pick nominees for certain state legislative vacancies.
  • Several new universities moved to RCV and proportional RCV for its elections, such as the University of Colorado, with that total number approaching 100 colleges and universities.

Notable RCV Elections in 2022

“I’m a big fan of ranked choice voting because I think it opens up the candidate pool significantly” – Mark Cuban, entrepreneur
  • Voters in Maine’s second congressional district used RCV to choose their Representative. Incumbent Democrat Jared Golden won 48% of first-choice votes to former Republican Representative Bruce Poliquin’s 45% and independent Tiffany Bond’s 7%. After Bond’s elimination, her supporters’ votes counted towards their next choice, of which a majority were Golden. Golden won the race in the second round with 53% of votes, demonstrating a strong depth and breadth of support. Golden’s vote share increased from the 2018 election which saw a similar matchup, perhaps due to his record of centrism and independence while representing this swing district. 
  • In the hotly-contested 4-way race for San Francisco’s District Attorney, incumbent Brooke Jenkins received 46% of votes on the first round, and went on to win the race with 54% of votes in the third round. Jenkins is the second woman ever, and the first Afro-Latina, to hold this position. 
  • Oakland used RCV to elect a new mayor. In the 10-way race, Taylor led with 33% of votes in the first round, with councilmember Sheng Thao close behind. In the eighth round of counting, councilmember Sheng Thao assumed the lead with 44% of votes and passed the 50% threshold in the ninth round. Thao received endorsements from labor unions and the county Democratic Party.
  • In FairVote’s home city of Takoma Park, MD, current city councilor Talisha Searcy defeated two opponents with an outright majority in the mayoral race. Searcy will become the first Black woman mayor of Takoma Park. Two of the city council races were particularly competitive and decided in later rounds.   
  • The four-way race for San Leandro’s mayor was tight between councilmember Bryan Azevedo and community leader Juan Gonzalez. Azevedo slightly led Gonzalez in the first round with both winning about 37% among voters’ first choices, but Gonzalez won in the third round of counting with 51% of votes.
  • Corvallis, OR used RCV for the first time to elect its mayor. Frontrunners – former councilor Charles Maughan and council VP Andrew Struthers agreed to run on issues from the start – with Maughan stating “simply focusing on voting records and the facts is all you should have to do.” In the nail-biting three way race, Maughan led with 38% of first-choice votes, with Struthers close behind at34%. When third place finisher councilor Roen Hogg was eliminated, Maughan narrowly defeated Struthers, 50.09% to 49.91%.

Legislative Progress in 2022

  • In 2022, pro-RCV legislation was introduced in half (25) of the states. Pro-RCV bills were passed in six states. Notably, Hawaii established RCV for certain special federal elections and vacancy elections. Maine passed a “local options” bill, authorizing towns and cities to adopt RCV. 
  • New Mexico Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández joined the Fair Representation Act as its first female and Latina cosponsor.
  • The Freedom to Vote Act, which includes pro-RCV provisions, passed in the US House and received 49 votes in the US Senate. 

The Growth of Proportional RCV

  • 2022 was a huge year for proportional RCV! With proportional RCV, nearly all voters will help elect a candidate they support, and different groups of voters will elect winners in proportion to their share of the votes cast. Voting and vote counting under proportional RCV is similar to traditional ranked choice voting, with one exception: Instead of one candidate winning with a majority of the votes, several candidates win with smaller shares. 
  • Albany and Palm Desert, California, used proportional RCV for the first time. Portland, Oregon, voted to adopt proportional RCV for its city council elections, and Portland, Maine, voted to switch from regular RCV to proportional RCV.
  • These cities joined Arden, Delaware; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Cambridge, Massachusetts in adopting the gold standard for conducting legislative elections. 
  • Both Albany and Palm Desert adopted proportional RCV with the hope of creating opportunities for their diverse populations to be represented. Under proportional RCV, Albany elected its first Asian-American city councilor.
  • The spread of proportional RCV is paving the way for the Fair Representation Act, which is FairVote’s key federal priority and would institute proportional representation for U.S. House elections. This year, 200 scholars signed an open letter calling on Congress to be elected using a proportional system like the FRA.

Virginia Republicans Expand RCV Use

  • Virginia Republicans have successfully utilized RCV as a way to promote party unity, nominate consensus candidates, and send competitive nominees to general elections. 
  • After the Virginia GOP’s use of RCV to nominate winning gubernatorial, lieutenant governor, and Attorney General candidates, Virginia Republicans used RCV to choose their nominees in three congressional districts for the 2022 midterm elections (VA-8, VA-10, and VA-11). 
  • The Republican nominee in VA-10, Hung Cao, emerged with a high net favorability rating (+78), in contrast to the nominee in VA-7 (Yesli Vega at +51), where RCV was not used. Cao went on to exceed expectations in the general election, winning 4% more votes than projected, whereas Vega performed as predicted. 
  • According to the same survey, 84% of respondents in VA-10 said the candidates ran a positive campaign, compared to 59% in the VA-7. A majority of GOP primary voters in VA-10 approve of using RCV for future elections.  

For further analysis on RCV in Virginia, see FairVote’s report Ranked Choice Voting in Virginia: A Conservative Solution for Party Nominees and the Center for Campaign Innovation’s report “Measuring the Effects of Ranked Choice Voting in Republican Primaries.”

Alaska’s First Use of RCV

  • Alaskans used RCV for the first time in federal, state legislative, and statewide races.  
  • After Maine, Alaska is the second state to adopt RCV statewide and the first to elect its governor and state legislature using RCV. In both states, the efforts to institute RCV were voter-driven and decided by ballot initiative. Maine uses RCV for primaries and some general elections, whereas Alaska uses a nonpartisan, single choice primary to choose the “top four” nominees for RCV general elections. 
  • In August, Alaskans got an early taste of RCV in the special election for Alaska’s at-large congressional district. In their first use, 85% of Alaskans reported RCV to be “simple,” according to a Patinkin Strategies / Alaskans for Better Elections poll. 95% also reported receiving instructions on how to complete their ranked ballot, indicating a successful voter education campaign from the Alaska Division of Elections. 73% of voters ranked multiple candidates. After running an issue-oriented campaign and building a strong first-round lead, Democrat Mary Peltola won in the second round. 
  • In November, Alaskans used RCV again in the regular election for their congressional seat, Governor, US Senator, and state legislators. Peltola expanded on her vote share in the congressional race. Moderate Republican Lisa Murkowski and conservative Republican Mike Dunleavy saw success in the senatorial and gubernatorial races respectively, with Murkowski building on a first round lead and winning in the second round, and Dunleavy winning a majority in the first round. RCV elected winners across the partisan spectrum, reflecting Alaska’s ideological diversity and independent streak. It also demonstrates that RCV does not favor any party, but simply elects the candidates with the greatest consensus. 
  • Ten state legislative races were decided in later rounds and three saw “come-from-behind” wins, including for Republican incumbent Thomas McKay in the House District 15 contest. McKay attributed his win in part to the other Republican in the race, David Eibeck. McKay said, “His message to voters was to rank me second. Publicly I need to thank David for doing that. Because he didn’t have to do that. And that obviously enabled me to catch up.”
  • Shortly after the election, nine Democrats and eight Republicans formed a bipartisan majority coalition in the Alaska Senate, demonstrating how Alaska’s system incentivizes consensus-building behavior.

Plurality Wins and Primary Runoffs Made the Case for RCV in 2022

  • In the 2022 primaries, 120 candidates in US House, US Senate, and statewide contests advanced to the general election with less than 50% of votes, otherwise known as a “plurality win.” Plurality wins can send unpopular party nominees to general elections and allow just a few voters to make decisions for the majority. This year, candidates who won their primaries with pluralities were more likely to lose competitive general elections and/or underperform in the general election. 
  • Eight states navigate this problem by holding runoff elections when no candidate has a majority of votes. However, in 96% of primary runoff elections from 1994-2022, fewer people voted in the runoff election than the first, with a median turnout decline of 40%. 
  • Two states use RCV for congressional primaries, ensuring that voters can nominate candidates who have broad support — without having to return to the polls. The many plurality wins and runoffs in the 2022 primaries make the case for RCV, a strong solution that other states and parties should consider. 

For further analysis on plurality wins and primary runoffs, see FairVote’s reports “Fewest Votes Wins: Plurality Victories in 2022 Primaries and Primary Runoff Elections and Decline in Voter Turnout, 1994-2022.”

“Ranked-choice voting . . . We know what it is now, and it’s really easy” – Former Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)

Research and Media on RCV

In 2022, RCV was a popular topic in the news cycle and in academia. RCV continues to be at the forefront of conversations about elections and democracy.

Research

Media

  • 30 newspapers, across 19 states and Washington D.C., wrote editorials expressing support for RCV. 
  • “The appeal of [RCV] is that it changes the incentives for candidates and voters in ways that can have a profound and curative impact on Democracy” – David Montgomery at the Washington Post
  • MSNBC aired a segment explaining Alaska’s first RCV election featuring FairVote CEO Rob Richie. 
  • “Candidates who do well in ranked choice elections tend to be those who connect with the widest group of voters possible” said Deb Otis, FairVote’s Director of Research, in a Politico article. 
  • RCV “works” and is “a valuable way to ensure that the outcome accurately reflects voters’ preferences” according to the Washington Post editorial board.

The RCV Network Continues to Grow

While FairVote continues to lead the RCV effort nationally, our partners are largely to thank for RCV’s success in 2022. Many local groups have logged significant progress with ballot measures, state legislators, and city councils.

  • Alaskans for Better Elections oversaw a smooth RCV implementation and voter education campaign. 
  • FairVote Illinois and RCV for Evanston lead the effort to adopt RCV in Evanston. 
  • FairVote Washington oversaw the successful RCV ballot measure in Seattle. 
  • In one of the most active local RCV movements in the county, Ranked Choice Voting for Fort Collins worked with over 100 volunteers to help voters to say “yes!” to RCV. 
  • Portland United for Change, with support from Oregon RCV, helped pass RCV ballot measures in Portland, OR, and the surrounding Multnomah County. 
  • Cal RCV defeated an effort to ban RCV, and continues to make inroads for RCV in cities across the state, with an exciting opportunity in Santa Clara County funded by FairVote Action. 
  • Democracy Maine shepherded a “local options” bill through the state legislature and into law. The law enables all cities and towns in Maine to adopt RCV at the local level, and is now working with a batch of new potential RCV cities. They also helped pass the proportional RCV ballot measure in Portland, ME. 
  • Local advocates in Amherst, Arlington, Concord, and Northampton, with support from Voter Choice Massachusetts (VCMA), advanced RCV through city councils or charter commissions. They now await state approval. 
  • RCV continues to show promise in Minnesota with the help of efforts from FairVote Minnesota.
  • National organizations like Unite America and RepresentUs continue to support RCV through thought leadership and/or campaign support.
  • Rank the Vote oversaw another year of tremendous growth for RCV, having brought in new volunteers and endorsements to the movement, and having played a key role in municipal campaigns and small-dollar contributions.  
  • RepresentWomen hosted its inaugural Democracy Solutions Summit and released a report on the outcome of the 2021 RCV elections in New York City, focusing in-part on RCV’s impact on women’s representation.
  • The Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center continues to provide expertise on RCV implementation to election administrators and policymakers.
  • Several right-of-center think tanks have fellows making important contributions to scholarship on RCV, including American Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute and R Street Institute.

Conclusion

We’re proud of the wins we secured for ranked choice voting this year, and we’re grateful for our partners and volunteers across the country who have made RCV the fastest growing nonpartisan reform in the nation. In 2022, RCV saw wins on the ground and in the national conversation about democracy. RCV has again proved to be popular among those who use it, and a facilitator of equity, representation, and better elections for all.

“I also think ranked choice voting allows people to vote out of hope, not just fear or trying to prevent someone else from achieving office when there’s only a binary choice” – Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), Vice Chair, Problem Solvers Caucus
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