Voters in Burlington, Vermont, and Redondo Beach, California approved ranked-choice voting measures in local elections on March 7.
Burlington Question 6 was approved with 64.4% of the vote. The measure amended the city’s charter to adopt ranked-choice voting for elections for the mayor, school commissioners, and ward election officers. Before Question 6, the candidate receiving a plurality of votes wins the office, unless no candidate receives at least 40% of the votes, whereby the top two candidates would proceed to a runoff election. The measure was put on the ballot by the Burlington City Council. In March 2021, Burlington voters approved a measure to adopt ranked-choice voting for city council elections.
Redondo Beach Measure CA5 was approved with 77.5% of the vote. The measure amended the city charter to implement ranked-choice voting for all city elected offices, thereby eliminating runoff elections. The amendment requires the city council to adopt an implementing ordinance to establish the electoral system. Seven other cities in California have adopted ranked-choice voting, including Oakland, San Francisco, San Leandro, Berkeley, Albany, Eureka, and Palm Desert.
Currently, two states (Alaska and Maine) had implemented ranked-choice voting in federal and/or state-level elections. One state (Hawaii) had adopted but not yet implemented RCV in certain elections. Another ten states contained jurisdictions that had implemented RCV at the local level. Another five states contained jurisdictions that had adopted but not yet implemented RCV in local elections.
In 2022, nine local ballot measures were related to adopting ranked-choice voting. Measures were passed in seven jurisdictions and were rejected in two.
Additional reading: