Resources
Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century
by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
by Barry Fagin, PhD, Senior Fellow, Independence Institute
2022 RCV for Fort Collins
2021 RCV for Broomfield (won 52%)
2021 HB21-1071 Assistance for large-scale use of RCV (bi-partisan)
2020 RCV for Boulder Mayor (won 78%)
2008 RCV for Telluride (won 67%)
2002 RCV in Basalt Charter Committee Adoption
2002 RCV Carbondale Charter Committee Adoption
Compared to winner-take-all elections, ranked choice voting in multi-winner contests allows more diverse groups of voters to elect candidates of choice. This promotes diversity of political viewpoint as well as diversity of candidate background and demographics. Even in single-winner races, ranked choice voting can promote the representation of historically under-represented groups like racial and ethnic minorities and women. A report co-authored by FairVote and the New America Foundation found that racial minority populations prefer ranked choice voting and find it easy to use, and that ranked choice voting increased turnout by 2.7 times in San Francisco.
Ranked Choice elections can be hand-counted or machine counted using software currently in use across Colorado. The Colorado Secretary of State has already promulgated administrative rules and has identified best-practices RCV audit procedures.
Ranked Choice Voting is legally defined in Colorado as only IRV/STV tally.
Single-winner RCV races (like mayor) sometimes get called “Instant Runoff Voting” (IRV).
Multiple-winner RCV races (like city council at-large, when elected with other at-large) are sometimes called “Single-Transferrable Vote” (STV).
The tally is the same method – STV uses one step that IRV does not need. IRV makes sure that the winner has the consensus of a majority. STV provides proportional representation, which makes sure that everyone has their fair-share of the say. The RCV ballots works the same way for the voter.