Rank Choice Voting

By Katerina A. Woodruff

Rank Choice Voting, or RCV, is a type of voting where instead of picking one candidate, you rank them in order of preference. For Eureka and the Humboldt Area, it is called Measure C. It would only be used when voting for the Mayor and those on the City Council. It would give voters more freedom and power when choosing their candidates rather than having to choose between the lesser of two evils.

How Rank Choice Voting Works

RCV is where voters would get a ballot similar to the one shown on the left, and rank the candidates in order of preference, then the voter's first choice is counted. If there is now clear winner and none of the candidates have more than 51% of the votes, than the second choice candidates are counted from the people that voted for whichever candidate has the least amount of votes and rerun the numbers. If this doesn't work than they repeat the process. If this still doesn't work then voters will vote using the current system in place.

Currently, Humboldt County is only able to use RCV during elections or competitions with up to 6 candidates and there can only be 1 winner.

Pro's

People can say who their first, second, etc. choice would be and it would be taken into account.
People don’t have do choose which of the candidates is the “lesser of two evils”
It would be used when voting for the Mayor and those in the City Council for Eureka.
Theoretically more people would vote.
It gives a chance for a candidate to get the majority of votes.

Con's

RCV is basically a popularity contest. The more charismatic you are, the more likely you are to get picked.
Vote Counting Machines can only go up to 6 candidates and there can only be one winner.
If RCV doesn’t work and there isn’t a clear winner, we just go back to our usual system of voting.
Our current system works just fine.
It’s more work for the people doing the manual count.

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