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Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020

Does ranked-choice voting increase voter turnout?

Allegra Taylor, Gigafact Foundry
yes

With ranked-choice voting, voters rank multiple candidates in order of preference rather than voting for one candidate. Maine has implemented the method statewide, and cities in eight other states now use it for local elections.

A 2016 study found that after cities adopted ranked-choice voting, voter turnout rose by eight percentage points. Ranked-choice elections eliminate primaries and runoffs, which have historically lower voter turnout than general elections.

One concern with the method is known as "ballot exhaustion," when a ballot is effectively thrown out when all of the candidates marked on the ballot are eliminated from the contest. In a study of four ranked-choice elections, ballot exhaustion rates ranged from 9.6% to 27.1%.

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