Summary California cities use six distinct local election systems — from plurality voting to Ranked Choice Voting — each with very different rules about whether a winner needs a majority and how many voters actually participate in the decisive round. Turnout is the hidden variable that determines how representative your local election really is: primaries average as little as 10–17% voter turnout, while November elections can reach 5x that level. Plurality voting , used in m

We’ve all been there: looking at a local election ballot and feeling like our vote is more of a "strategic calculation" than a true expression of our values. We worry about "split votes" or "spoilers," and sometimes it feels like the winners don’t actually represent the majority of the community. If you’re a fan of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), you already know the solution. You know that RCV creates fairer outcomes, encourages civil campaigning, and ensures winners have true b

In 2023, the people of Redondo Beach chose to eliminate costly, low-turnout runoff elections with Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), letting voters pick a majority winner in a single election, on a single day, at a fraction of the cost. Background Under the city’s old election system, if no candidate received more than 50% in Redondo Beach’s March general election, the top two candidates faced off again in a separate May runoff. Two elections. Two rounds of campaigning. Two sets of