☆ Opinion: Ranked-choice voting system messily, dangerously overcomplicated

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Tomorrow, SCC Supes will consider adopting ranked-choice voting for future elections. In this Opp Now exclusive, local resident Alice Kao critiques RCV's tabulating methods as non-intuitive and confusing, adding that (by design) they end up discarding many voters' preferences.

For those unfamiliar with Ranked Choice Voting, it’s a complex system that requires voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference. While this may sound straightforward, it has pitfalls. Voters who prefer to select just one candidate often find their ballots discarded early in the process without their knowledge—a phenomenon known as "ballot exhaustion." Even for those who rank candidates, RCV imposes a limit on how many preferences can be expressed. If the number of candidates exceeds this limit, ballots can still be exhausted before the final round, potentially leaving voters left out from the final decisive tally.

Confused yet? That’s the point. While RCV advocates often use playful analogies—like ranking ice cream flavors or candy—to tout its appeal, they never explain the intricate vote-counting process. Under the hood, Dominion Voting Systems, the intended tabulator for RCV, includes at least 14 different settings that render at least 276,480 different ways to count our votes. Depending on how the settings are set, it could lead to just as many different outcomes! One Million Auditors has a detailed breakdown of how RCV tabulates votes, along with firsthand accounts from Oakland residents who have used it for 14 years.

Go Deeper:

• Voting your conscience makes a lot more sense than voting "strategically"
• Opp Now contributors break down Election '24 wins, mistakes, & more (all parts together)
• Standing apart from the voting process can be an act of conscience

The inconvenient truth on RCV is that multiple Citizen-led analyses of Oakland’s elections have consistently shown that RCV disproportionately disadvantages seniors and less affluent voters. Its complexity leads to higher error rates and confusion, making it harder for these groups to ensure their votes are counted as they intend.

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