The case for ranked choice voting May 31, 2025 As more democracies confront the limitations of outdated systems, ranked choice voting stands out as a practical reform that brings elections closer to reflecting the true will of the people. "Ranked choice voting is a better system than what is currently used by several democracies because it preserves voter intent, encourages sincere participation, and produces leaders who are more likely to reflect the majority’s will rather than the largest plurality." Read the article at https://ucsdguardian.org/2025/06/01/the-case-for-ranked-choice-voting/ All News & Updates

There's only one way to fix gerrymandering (and it's not through the courts) May 7, 2023 Single-member districts are uniquely susceptible to gerrymandering; proportional multi-member districts make the practice prohibitively hard. "Some current solutions to the gerrymandering problem do help. The four states that use independent commissions, for instance, have mostly brought partisan gerrymandering to heel. But the solutions are imperfect. For example, elections in those states are generally not more competitive : Safe districts remain pervasive. California, for instance, which has mostly eliminated partisan gerrymandering, features only a handful of competitive districts (out of 52), and still delivers substantially more seats to Democrats than their statewide popular vote gives them due. As more partisans sort themselves geographically, with red voters in more rural areas and blue ones in more urban ones, single-member districts inevitably generate more safe districts. The underlying problem—unfairly advantaging one party over another—persists. “Unintentional gerrymandering ,” as some political scientists call it. As long as the U.S. retains single-member districting, gerrymandering, intentional or not, is here to stay." Cal RCV supports multi-member districts with Proportional Ranked Choice Voting for the California Senate and Assembly. Read the full piece at https://thehill.com/homenews/3992810-theres-only-one-way-to-fix-gerrymandering-and-its-not-through-the-courts/ All News & Updates

Governor Newsom signs bill allowing Ranked Choice Voting in Santa Clara County Oct 7, 2023 County is now clearly authorized to upgrade to better, fairer elections Cal RCV and its coalition partners FairVote and CfER have been working together to complete a project CfER started in November 1997 to bring Ranked Choice Voting to the 2 million people of Santa Clara County. The people of Santa Clara voted for RCV, however, there have been questions raised by the county's counsel about whether the county can choose to move to RCV, even though Santa Clara County is a charter county. Assembly Bill 1227 clarifies that Santa Clara County can indeed adopt RCV as a charter county, and on October 7, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law. The bill passed with overwhelming support in the Assembly and Senate earlier in the summer. From the AB 1227 fact sheet: PROBLEM In November 1998, Santa Clara County voters passed Measure F, with 53.9% voting in favor, to allow the use of instant runoff voting in the county when the technology became available. Instant runoff voting is another name for RCV. Although the County’s voting machines now have the capability to conduct RCV elections, the County’s Board of Supervisors would like clarity in state law that gives Santa Clara County, a charter county, control over the method of electing their county officers. SOLUTION AB 1227 allows the people’s vote to be implemented in Santa Clara County by giving authority to the County Board of Supervisors to adopt a proposal to elect county officers by RCV. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/10/07/governor-newsom-issues-legislative-update-10-7-23/ All News & Updates

Santa Clara County considering ranked-choice voting Jun 5, 2024 Santa Clara County is considering a fundamental change to voting, which is moving to a ranked-choice voting model. "South Bay congressman Ro Khanna said he is for it. “Sometimes having the person who can build the most consensus is important and ranked choice voting just makes that easier. So, now you can’t just talk to the far right or the far left. You’ve got to talk to everyone,” he said. Santa Clara County plans to take up the issue this summer, while Khanna said he hopes the Voter Choice Act can be addressed before the November election. Overall, ranked choice voting has been picking up momentum and is now used in 50 cities and counties in 14 states." Watch the segment at https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/santa-clara-county-considering-ranked-choice-voting/3558649/ All News & Updates

California can never win a race to the bottom with Trump on redistricting Aug 10, 2025 First, California and its Democrats should enact proportional representation, the fairest way to divide up legislative seats. “First, California and its Democrats should enact proportional representation, the fairest way to divide up legislative seats. Right now, Republicans get about 40% of the votes for Congress and the Legislature in California, but they have less than one-quarter of the representatives. That’s because the current winner-take-all system awards each legislative district only one representative.” https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/legislature-redistricting-california-democrat-20807347.php This article is behind a paywall. All News & Updates

Cal RCV Strategy Meeting - October 2025 Oct 21, 2025 Guest speakers shared insights on the PRCV rollout in Portland and updates on RCV progress in California California is ready for fairer, more representative elections—and the momentum is growing. Watch Cal RCV’s October 2025 meeting for an inside look at how Los Angeles can learn from Portland, OR. Robin Ye, a Portland city council candidate and election reform leader, shares firsthand insights on Portland’s groundbreaking use of Proportional Ranked Choice Voting (PRCV). Portland’s 2024 election was a turning point: more voters saw their ballots count, more communities earned representation, and candidates built coalitions instead of divisions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3kS3R-Kj1c Cal RCV's Executive Director, Marcela Miranda-Caballero, also connects the dots back to Los Angeles. She outlines how Portland’s success strengthens our push to get PRCV on the LA ballot in the coming years. All News & Updates

Baffled by the mayor’s race? Here's how to be a tactical ranked-choice voter Oct 16, 2024 Ranked-choice voting works as a powerful system that narrows a crowded field of candidates through a series of computer-assisted instant runoffs. “Here’s my suggestion: Rank as many candidates as you can of these top five. It’s important to know that your lower rankings cannot hurt your top one; you stay with your top choice provided that person is not eliminated. But if your candidate does get sent home, your vote switches to your next choice. You’re still in the race.” Read the op-ed at https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2024/10/16/how-to-be-a-tactical-ranked-choice-voter/ All News & Updates

Ranked Choice Voting and Communities of Color Research Jan 17, 2024 New Report Shows Evidence that Ranked Choice Voting Benefits Candidates and Voters of Color Ranked choice voting (RCV) has measurable positive impacts for voters and candidates of color, a new FairVote report finds. The report examines 448 ranked choice voting elections across 20 years – a testament to the staggering growth this movement has seen over the last two decades. Key findings from the report include: Candidates of color benefit from the RCV counting process, gaining more support as lower-performing candidates are eliminated. RCV allows several candidates of color to run in the same race without “splitting the vote.” Voters of color tend to rank more candidates than White voters. Naturalized citizens and permanent residents support ranked choice voting and proportional representation. These findings build on research and election data showing that candidates of color are more likely to win RCV contests, and several previous surveys showing high support for RCV among Black and Latino voters. Watch a 5 min overview of the research findings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZhSPqfxd0c All News & Updates

New Bay Area ranked choice voting system worked, should be California model Jan 14, 2023 State’s small cities should take note of November success in Albany’s multi-seat City Council race Albany Mayor Aaron Tiedemann penned an op-ed about the city's successful first election using Proportional Ranked Choice Voting: "Our city just elected two City Council members using a voting system new to California. The process provides a model for small cities across the state that want to diversify their governing boards without carving up their communities into tiny voting districts." Read the full article at https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/01/14/opinion-new-ranked-choice-voting-system-worked-should-be-california-model/ All News & Updates

Voter Turnout Flounders in Sacramento Primaries Nov 28, 2023 "Sacramento, California has a voter turnout problem. Turnout in its primaries is much lower than in its general elections, and the primary electorate is less representative of Sacramento’s population – underrepresenting young voters and renters. Sacramento could join other California cities, and solve this problem by consolidating its elections into a single, high-turnout contest with ranked choice voting." Our friends at FairVote published new research on the voter turnout gap in Sacramento's primaries at https://fairvote.org/voter-turnout-flounders-in-sacramento-primaries/ Learn more about the efforts to fix this primary problem using Ranked Choice Voting at http://www.betterballotsacramento.org/ All News & Updates

Could ranked choice voting make Vallejo's City Council more representative? Sep 15, 2024 Ranked choice, also known as instant runoff voting, allows voters to rank candidates in order from their favorite to least preferred candidate. "Proponents of the system argue that it leads to a number of benefits for candidates and voters, including a reduction in negative campaigning. The idea is that candidates may be leery of attacking a voter’s first choice candidate because under ranked choice they still need to appeal to voters to mark them as a second or third preference. But the leading feature according to its proponents is that it tends to prevent what is known as “vote splitting,” or “the spoiler effect.” This is when two candidates that may be running on similar issues appeal to the same group of voters, or when a third party candidate draws votes away from one of two leading candidates, allowing the opposing candidate to prevail. According to Marcela Miranda-Caballero, executive director of the advocacy group California Ranked Choice Voting, in the ranked choice system, voters can feel more secure about voting for their favorite candidate without worrying about strategizing to make their vote count in order to prevent a candidate that they really don’t want from taking office." Read the full article at https://www.vallejosun.com/could-ranked-choice-voting-make-vallejos-city-council-more-representative/ All News & Updates

Ranked choice voting can help increase voter turnout Jun 14, 2023 Santa Clara County might be on the brink of embracing a new era of democracy. Introduced by Assemblymembers Evan Low and Alex Lee, Assembly Bill 1227 paves the way for implementing ranked choice voting in county elections. "Political experts expect the Senate to pass Lee and Low’s legislation this summer and Gov. Gavin Newsom will most likely sign it. If it increases voter participation as well as saving county money, we hope county supervisors will adopt ranked voting choice starting in 2024." Read the full article at https://morganhilllife.com/2023/06/09/editorial-ranked-voting/ All News & Updates