How Better Ballot Design and Voter Education Improved Oakland’s Ranked-Choice Voting Elections Oct 1, 2025 Due to improvements in ballot design and voter guidance, the special election ran smoothly “Oakland held a special election with RCV in April 2025, just five months after its November 2024 election with the higher-than-usual error rate. Due to improvements in ballot design and voter guidance, the special election ran smoothly and the overvote rate dropped to less than a quarter of the rate in 2024 with 99.6 percent of voters casting valid ballots.” Article begins on page 29 of the PDF report at https://electioncenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/JEARP-Volume-04-Issue-02.pdf . All News & Updates

Charron: It’s time for Santa Clara County to adopt ranked choice voting Nov 19, 2025 If we can spend $13 million on an extra election, we can certainly invest a fraction of that to make our voting system fairer. Cal RCV's co-founder and board president, Tom Charron, penned an op-ed about the need for Santa Clara County to adopt Ranked Choice Voting. Read the op-ed at https://sanjosespotlight.com/charron-its-time-for-santa-clara-county-to-adopt-ranked-choice-voting/ All News & Updates

< Back Renewable Energy Program This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Power in Numbers 30 Programs 50 Locations 200 Volunteers Project Gallery Previous Next

< Back Rainforest Action Initiative This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Power in Numbers 30 Programs 50 Locations 200 Volunteers Project Gallery Previous Next

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< Back Zero Carbon World This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Power in Numbers 30 Programs 50 Locations 200 Volunteers Project Gallery Previous Next

< Back Desert Wildlife Conservation This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Power in Numbers 30 Programs 50 Locations 200 Volunteers Project Gallery Previous Next

Ranked choice voting is under threat in California Apr 8, 2022 "It works, it’s cost-effective, it makes for more representative government and voters like it." -- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin The Mayors of Oakland and Berkeley write in support of Ranked Choice Voting, in the face of a bill introduced in the state Assembly seeking to ban RCV across California. (The bill subsequently failed to make it out of the Assembly Elections Committee) "California, the biggest and most diverse state, is teeming with opportunity but also is facing incredible challenges, ranging from drought to homelessness. To effectively address these problems, we need more representative government at the city, county and state levels. Here in Berkeley and Oakland, one way we’ve made that happen since 2010 is through ranked choice voting. Using this method rather than traditional voting gives us an easy-to-use system that saves money and improves voter turnout while leading to the election of more women and people of color." Read the full article at: https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/04/08/opinion-ranked-choice-voting-is-under-threat-in-california/ All News & Updates

This simple change could increase voter participation and political civility in Sacramento Apr 22, 2025 Evidence shows this method promotes political civility, supports consensus and gives voters greater choice and satisfaction. “Bringing [ranked choice voting] to Sacramento will make our elections more efficient, positive, solution-oriented and reflective of our community, benefiting candidates and voters alike." Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article304696926.html All News & Updates

Doubling down on an open primary will expand voter choice in California Nov 27, 2023 “Instead, California should give more options to voters by expanding the number of candidates that advance to the general election and determine the winner using an instant runoff, also known as ranked-choice voting.” Read the full opinion piece at https://www.presstelegram.com/2023/11/27/doubling-down-on-an-open-primary-will-expand-voter-choice-in-california/ All News & Updates

Politicians Are Polarized. American Voters, Not So Much. Aug 29, 2025 RCV enables ideologically complex voters to express their nuanced views An op-ed by Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster, reveals that while elected officials have become increasingly polarized along partisan lines, three-quarters of American voters defy ideological extremes and instead hold "heterodox" views—complex combinations of positions that don't fit neatly on a traditional left-right spectrum, with 22% identifying as socially conservative but fiscally liberal, and most voters weaving together beliefs from across the political spectrum rather than adhering to a single ideological framework. The op-ed's finding that the political center is better understood as a "mind-set of openness" rather than a fixed point directly supports the case for ranked choice voting, which incentivizes candidates to build broader coalitions by seeking second-choice rankings from voters with diverse perspectives rather than appealing only to partisan bases. By eliminating the spoiler effect and allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference, RCV enables these ideologically complex voters to express their nuanced views without strategic calculations, while encouraging candidates to campaign more positively and adopt positions that appeal across traditional partisan divides to earn rankings from supporters of other candidates. This alignment between how most voters actually think—rejecting rigid ideological sorting in favor of issue-by-issue heterodoxy—and how RCV structures electoral incentives makes ranked choice voting particularly well-suited to represent the true complexity of the American electorate and reduce the disconnect between polarized politicians and the more ideologically fluid voters they claim to represent. Read the article at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/opinion/american-politics-center.html All News & Updates

Ranked Choice Voting Gaining Steam Dec 1, 2022 The League of Women Voters of Alameda (LWVA) and their supporters want the option to institute RCV in Alameda to appear on the ballot in 2024. "Ranked Choice Voting has become the fastest-growing electoral reform in the nation because it ensures elected officials have the broadest range of support , and reduces political polarization and negative campaigning . Candidates are motivated to expand their base of support by asking voters whose first choice is another candidate to consider them as their second choice. It also encourages more women and racial minorities to run for office. And it saves the expense and delay of a separate runoff election when a majority mandate is required." Read the full article at: https://alamedapost.com/op-ed/ranked-choice-voting-gaining-steam/ All News & Updates