What role for RCV in the election of Mamdani?
Back to school! The question has come up in my classrooms and conversations at the ongoing APSA conference. Here are some thoughts.
Read more…Category: Ranked-choice voting
Notes on preferential voting in America, emphasizing developments from about 1990 to present.
Discussing DC’s upcoming RCV primary on NBC4 Washington
Lecture slides on kinds of ranked-choice voting
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…Coalition formation in Portland’s first STV election
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.
On New York City’s unique “top-two” elections proposal
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.