by Jack Santucci
Notes on preferential voting in America, emphasizing developments from about 1990 to present.
Someone recently asked me about the potential effects of a new kind of RCV. Here are my old lecture slides on the topic. The key table is below. A fifth variant incorporates numbered-post elections, which are explained here.
Read more…I have a new report with Kevin Kosar and Jaehun Lee, jointly published by the American Enterprise Institute and Manhattan Institute:
Read more…Portland, Oregon, first used its new proportional ranked-choice voting electoral system to elect city council members in November 2024.
A variety of groups endorsed candidates in this nonpartisan election.
Analyses of these groups’ endorsements point to the emergence of four political blocs: national progressivism, pro-business pragmatism, local progressivism, and laborism.
It is not yet clear what style of politics will emerge in future elections. Possibilities include local multi-partism, local bi-partism based on coalition parties, and continued fluidity, including within the blocs themselves.
Portland’s urban politics may prove unstable and feature shifting alliances among these groups in the run-up to subsequent elections.
Last week, I wrote an article for City Journal on the proposed “top-two” system of mayoral elections in New York City. Here is how it opens: “As a political scientist, I don’t love the proposal, but it could work—if parties retain control of which candidates use their labels.”
I also spoke with NY1 on Friday afternoon. The bottom line in that conversation was that this proposal is not for an “open primary” as typically understood.
This is a complex issue. As such, it is hard to evaluate separately from what one expects or wants to see in November’s mayoral election.
Tomorrow is the in-person primary election in New York City. Polls variously expect Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani to win the Democratic mayoral nomination. In the background, the city’s charter commission is considering an overhaul of the mayoral electoral system. TLDR: one proposal would mandate two-candidate general elections.
We will see what happens in the primary. I wrote about the situation here.
For me, this episode underscores a tension in the world of electoral reform. On the one hand, many of these devices promise “majority rule.” On the other, they promise to make it easier to run for office without expectation of majority support. Some are drawn by the former idea, others by the latter.
If you are looking for a term to describe the form of RCV that the situation might bring forth, one option is “bottoms-up.” I wrote about it in this 2021 journal article.
I have a new report with Kevin Kosar and Jaehun Lee of the American Enterprise Institute:
Read more…Key Points
- Portland, Oregon, used its decennial charter revision process to overhaul its method for electing the city’s legislators in 2022.
- The new system divided the city into four districts, with each district represented by three members selected through ranked ballots.
- Portland first used this new system in November 2024, and initial analysis indicates that it expanded the representativeness of the candidate pool and resultant council.