Resources and Links

RCV Toolkit for Local Activists

FairVote is developing a toolkit for local activists to help them bring RCV to their state, county, city, campus, or organization. It includes resources for community assessment, for education, for outreach, and other resources.

Our toolkit for activists: RCV in Your Community

Our toolkit for RCV on campus: RCV on Campus

Our brochure: Ranked Choice Voting: Vote-Count-Elect

Online RCV Election/Polling Tools

OpaVote allows you to run secure, reliable organizational elections using either single-winner or multi-winner RCV. Check out an example of their embeddable ranked choice voting widget here. You can also run polls to educate voters, and post them on social media. Here is a great example of a poll we created for the 2018 World Cup. Here are the results.

RCV and Civility Study

In 2013, FairVote received a generous grant from the Democracy Fund to conduct a comprehensive two-year study of the impact of ranked choice voting (RCV) on campaign cooperation and civility in local elections in the U.S. Research conducted by the Eagleton Poll at Rutgers University and a core team of four academics led by Professor Caroline Tolbert of the University of Iowa found that voters in cities with RCV were more satisfied with candidate conduct and perceived less candidate criticism and negativity. A review of newspaper coverage also demonstrated more positive coverage in RCV cities than non-RCV cities in 2013. In RCV city, RCV was supported by a majority of voters who expressed an opinion.

The Ranked Choice Voting and Civility Project.
2015 report on RCV in cities.
2014 Eagleton Poll RCV Survey Results.

Testimony and Presentations

FairVote staff and supporters have provided written and oral testimony in support of RCV in a variety of contexts.

Model Legislation

FairVote has worked with experienced attorneys and legislative drafters to ensure that its model legislation meets best practices.

Model state statute or city ordinance (single and multi-seat RCV)

Model state statute or city ordinance (single-seat RCV only)

Model Constitutional amendment or city charter amendment

Model resolution for a political party or other organization

Legislation from Other Jurisdictions

Maine: text of citizen initiative for ranked choice voting

Berkeley (CA) charter provision

Oakland (CA) charter provision

San Francisco (CA) charter provision

San Leandro (CA) city ordinance

Memphis (TN) charter provision

Minneapolis (MN) charter provision

Minneapolis (MN) city ordinance

St. Paul (MN) city ordinance

Portland (ME) charter provision

Takoma Park (MD) city ordinance

Telluride (CO) ballot measure (Question 202)

Santa Fe (NM) city charter (Sec. 4.06)

Sample Ballots

Ballot usability is an important aspect of any successful election. FairVote has developed a sample ranked choice voting ballot based on best practices in usability. We also highlight approaches taken by actual jurisdictions in designing ranked ballots to highlight key decisions that went into our sample ballot.

FairVote's Sample RCV Ballot

Ballots from Other Jurisdictions

Cambridge, MA: 2001 School Committee

South Carolina: 2006 Republican Primary Overseas Ballot

Portland, ME: 2015 Mayor

Portland, ME: 2011 Mayor
This was Portland's first mayoral election and it attracted a large number of candidates; voters were permitted to rank all candidates.

Minneapolis, MN: 2009 Mayor and City Council
Minneapolis was limited in 2009 to three rankings and listing each candidate's name three times due to older voting equipment.

Assumption Parish, LA: 2001 Judicial Election Overseas Ballot
Louisiana in 2001 hand counted RCV ballots for military and overseas voters, so voters ranked by writing numerals rather than filling in ovals.

Wicklow, Ireland: 2002 Dáil Éireann (Irish legislature)
Ireland hand-counts ballots in its multi-winner RCV elections, so voters ranked candidates by writing numerals rather than filling in ovals.

Election Administration

FairVote supports election administrators in their goal to make RCV elections as easy as possible for voters and poll-workers and ensuring that everyone involved can be confident in the security and accuracy of the results. See our page on RCV and election administration for even more resources.