This report summarizes the preliminary findings of a study into the impact of the introduction of ranked choice voting (RCV) on candidate spending in city elections in the Bay Area of California.

This study examines the effect of ranked choice voting (RCV) on women and people of color running for elected office in the California Bay Area. The findings of the study reveal that RCV increases descriptive representation for women, people of color, and women of color. Some reasons for RCV’s positive effects can be related to how often it replaces low, unrepresentative, turnout elections and that it allows for multiple candidates appealing to the same community to run without splitting the vote.

In Monopoly Politics 2016 FairVote explores the extent, causes and remedies to the lack of competition and partisan fairness in U.S. House elections and the increasing polarization of members elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Haley Smith explores different aspects of political engagement, showing that, in RCV cities, candidates are more likely to reach out to voters in-person and voters are more likely to discuss politics with their families, friends and co-workers than in cities that do not use RCV.

Cambridge, MA, has used multi-winner RCV to elect its city council for decades. In this report, polarization among Cambridge city council candidates and councilors is explored, showing low levels of polarization.

With the 2016 presidential primary season now wrapped up, this report explores aspects of voter turnout in state primaries, comparing 2016 to the 2008 primary season.

Washington state has long suffered from noncompetitive congressional elections. It has experienced one of the longest incumbent winning streaks in the nation: no U.S. House incumbent has lost in Washington since 1998. 

The State of Women's Representation 2015-2016 finds that women are underrepresented at the national, state, and local level, and that parity for men and women in elected office is unlikely to occur without structural changes in recruitment, electoral, and legislative rules.