On November 3, voters in Washington, DC will use ranked choice voting (RCV) in a general election for the first time. Here’s what you need to know; readers can also visit Rank the District for more information. 

Which Washington, DC elections will use ranked choice voting?

DC voters approved ranked choice voting and semi-open primaries in a 2024 ballot measure, which passed with 73% support. The nation’s capital now uses RCV for all federal and local elections that have three or more candidates. This November, that means RCV contests for mayor, DC Council, Board of Education, delegate to Congress, and advisory neighborhood commissions. Voters will have the option to rank the declared candidates and write-ins.

How is RCV working in Washington, DC so far?

DC voters used RCV for the first time in highly competitive primary elections this June. Our analysis finds that in those primaries: 

• Voters showed up: Turnout was the highest in 30 years, and the second highest in DC history. 
• Voters liked RCV: Exit polling found that 78% of DC voters say RCV is simple and 74% support having the ability to rank candidates.
• Voters used their rankings: In every RCV election, more than 60% of voters ranked multiple candidates. In the most competitive races, voters ranked 2.6 to 3 candidates on average.
• RCV made more votes count: Every race had majority winners, and three in four voters who ranked a lower-performing candidate first had their vote count for one of the finalists – including 34,093 voters in the at-large Council race. Before RCV, DC regularly nominated primary winners without majority support, and votes for lower-performing candidates were effectively “wasted.”

How does RCV work in the two-winner 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. 

Prior to RCV, voters had the option to vote for two candidates in this two-winner election. This year, they’ll rank the candidates instead. This form of RCV is called bottoms-up ranked choice voting.

The voter experience is the same as in any RCV election – voters simply rank the candidates in order of preference. Their vote counts for their first choice, unless that candidate doesn’t have a chance to win. 

When tallying the results, the candidate with the fewest first choices is eliminated. Voters who ranked that candidate “number one” have their vote count for their next choice. This repeats 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 will see one of their top choices elected. In DC’s previous “vote-for-two” system, the same voters could elect both winners – with all other voters getting nothing. This form of two-winner RCV is considered “semi-proportional,” and it supports both majority rule and minority voice.