On Election Day, Washington, DC voters used ranked choice voting (RCV) in a general election for the first time. Voters used RCV to elect a new mayor, congressional delegate, DC Council members, State Board of Education members, and advisory neighborhood commissioners (ANCs). Turnout was higher than in the city’s last open mayoral election in 2014.

With RCV, more DC voters were able to make their voices heard and elect candidates of their choice. In the at-large DC Council race, 96% elected a candidate of their choice, and 5,676 voters had a more meaningful vote because of RCV. Across races that went to an RCV tally, an average of 91% of voters weighed in between the finalist candidates. 

Read on for the preliminary results of key races.

More votes count with ranked choice voting

Seven races went to an RCV tally – the two-winner, at-large DC Council race, and six races for Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. ANCs are hyperlocal advisory boards, with each seat representing about 2,000 residents across a few city blocks. 

In these races, an average of 91% of voters expressed a preference between the finalist candidates. In the at-large DC Council race, 96% elected a candidate of their choice. 5,676 voters had their voices count because of RCV – they ranked a lower-performing candidate first but ranked one of the winning candidates on their ballot. 

In several races with three or more candidates – including the races for mayor and congressional delegate – the winner received a majority of voters’ first choices. These races did not go to an RCV count, and are excluded from the table above.

Spotlight: More votes count in at-large Council race

Each cycle, DC elects two at-large Council members. DC’s charter requires that the two winners come from different parties. This means each party can only nominate one candidate, and other candidates run as independents. 

This year, four candidates ran for the two seats. Democrat Oye Owelewa and independent Elissa Silverman won, and are currently at 76% and 24% in the preliminary RCV tally released by the DC Board of Elections.

The voter experience in this two-winner election is the same as in any RCV election – voters simply rank the candidates in order of preference. When tallying the results, lower-performing candidates are eliminated until there are only two candidates left. (The only difference from DC’s other ranked choice voting elections is that, in those contests, we eliminate candidates until there is only one winner instead of two.)

With this system, most DC voters saw one of their top choices elected; 90% of voters ranked either Owolewa or Silverman first, and 96% ranked at least one on their ballots. That includes 5,676 voters whose first choice was Green Party candidate Darryl Moch or a write-in, but who still had their vote count for one of the winners.

That’s different from DC’s old system, where one group of voters could effectively pick both winners and lock everyone else out of representation.

How we got here

DC implemented RCV this year after 73% of voters approved a 2024 ballot initiative to implement RCV and semi-open primaries. DC voters used RCV for the first time in the June primary; DC saw its highest primary turnout in three decades, and its second-highest turnout ever.

In exit polling from the primary, 78% of DC voters said RCV is simple, and 74% supported having the ability to rank candidates. In every RCV election, more than 60% of voters ranked multiple candidates. In the most competitive races, voters ranked 2.6 to three candidates on average.