WaPo: “Imagine that instead of settling for one candidate in an election — perhaps the lesser of evils — you could rank multiple candidates according to your preference.
It’s called “ranked-choice voting” (RCV), and it is slowly gaining traction as an alternative way to conduct elections. Some states are making limited use of it, including Maryland and Virginia.
Takoma Park has used RCV for 15 years. In Virginia, the 2020 General Assembly approved a pilot program allowing its use for local elections, though no locality has yet adopted it.
In traditional voting, voters choose just one candidate. In most states, including Maryland and Virginia, a candidate can prevail with a simple plurality. Other states require a majority of votes to win, and if no candidate tops the 50 percent threshold, the top two vote-getters meet again weeks later in a “runoff” election.
In ranked-choice balloting, also known as “instant-runoff voting,” if no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes in the initial round of counting, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Candidates who were second choices to the eliminated candidate are then apportioned to the remaining candidates and the results are retabulated. The process is repeated until one candidate achieves a majority.”