RCV: Ranked Choice Voting

Ranked choice voting is an alternative method for electing officials. The most common electoral system in the U.S.A. is called first past the post. In this system, the candidate with the most votes wins even if it’s not a majority. This system discourages more than two candidates running and is what created our two-party system. In First past the post, if there are 5 candidates in a race, the winner can win by as low as 20% +1 voters supporting them. In ranked choice voting, voters rank the candidates in order of preference, and then candidates are eliminated in order of the fewest votes to most. When a candidate is eliminated, the voters who voted for them get their next choice counted instead. So even if you support an unpopular candidate, your vote still helps decide the winner. RCV is far from perfect and can still trend towards two parties, which is why we don’t support it for the legislature. RCV is the best option when it is a single person who holds the office. That is why RCV is what we will use for the president and state constitutional offices in The Minnesota Plan.