Ranked choice voting is a better way to vote than our current winner-take-all system because it:

• Promotes majority support
  • More than half of all voters will select the winner with one of their choices.
• Encourages positive campaigning
  • In addition to campaigning for 1st choice votes, candidates also compete to be the 2nd or even 3rd choice of their opponents’ supporters, which disincentivizes negative campaigning.
• Provides more choice for voters
  • RCV encourages more candidates to run because they don’t have to worry about taking away votes from a similar candidate or waiting for “their turn.” This inherently promotes diversity of political viewpoints as well as diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, and demographics. 
• Allows voters to vote for their favorite candidate
  • Voters are able to cast their first-choice vote for a candidate they truly support rather than voting against the candidate they oppose the most. In addition, voters can vote for their first-choice candidate without fear of “vote splitting” or throwing away their vote. 
• Saves tax dollars
  • RCV eliminates the need for separate, expensive runoff elections because it is designed to produce a winner who receives a majority of support in a single election.
  • For example, the 2023 Chicago mayoral runoff election cost taxpayers $19.8 million. This cost would not have been incurred with RCV because the runoff would have occurred instantly in the general election. This is why RCV is sometimes referred to as “instant-runoff voting.”