Campaign Civility
Ranked Choice Voting and Civil Campaigning
Voters in RCV elections may rank candidates beyond just selecting their first choice. If a voter's higher-ranked candidates loses, the voter's vote will count for their second-, third-, or later-ranked candidate. The contest for each voter's vote is not a zero-sum game, unlike in plurality elections. Candidates do best in RCV elections when they attract a strong core of first-choice support while also reaching out for second and even third choices.
These characteristics of RCV encourage more civil discourse between candidates since a candidate needs to appeal to a broader range of voters – including their own core supporters and supporters of other candidates – in order to win. Candidates have less incentive to make negative statements about their opponents because they risk alienating that opponent's supporters. Former Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges describes this phenomenon in the video below:
Voter Perceptions of the Tone of Candidates and Their Campaigns
In 2013-2014, FairVote conducted a comprehensive two-year study of the impact of RCV on campaign cooperation and civility, thanks to a generous grant from the Democracy Fund. As part of the project, the Rutgers-Eagleton Institute of Politics, with Professor Caroline J. Tolbert (University of Iowa) and Professor Todd Donovan (Western Washington University), conducted two rigorous independent opinion polls exploring voters' experiences in local campaigns and elections.
The Eagleton surveys show:
- Likely voters in cities that used RCV in their local elections were more satisfied with the conduct of candidate campaigns, and perceived less candidate criticism and negative campaigning in the lead up to their local elections.
- Ranked choice voting was supported by a majority of voters with an opinion. In both 2013 and 2014, a majority of voters in RCV cities supported the use of RCV in local elections. In the survey of non-RCV cities in California, a majority of voters with an opinion supported the adoption of RCV.
- In California, Independent voters in RCV cities were more satisfied with candidates’ campaigns than were Independent voters in non-RCV cities. The dissatisfaction of Independents with campaigns in plurality elections may suggest that plurality elections encourage more ideologically extreme campaigns, even in non-partisan local elections.
For more information on how the surveys were conducted, download our survey methodology document.
In-depth: Socio-economic and Demographic Variations in California
Fine grained analysis by socio-economic and demographic groups is possible for the California 2014 poll. Likely voters in cities that used RCV were more satisfied with the conduct of candidate campaigns, and perceived less candidate criticism and negative campaigning in the lead up to the November 2014 elections.
These tendencies were especially strong with regard to candidate criticism and negative campaigning.
- In the RCV cities of Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco and San Leandro, only 53 percent of respondents remembered candidates criticizing each other, compared to 65 percent in plurality cities.
- More respondents in cities using RCV (17%) reported reduced negativity in local election campaigns than in cities that without RCV (12%).
- Virtually every demographic group studied – including low-income respondents, college graduates, Latinos, African-Americans, women, Independents and unmarried people – reported less negativity in RCV cities than in plurality cities.
Figure 1: Perceived Negativity, Socioeconomic Groups, RCV cities and Plurality cities
Figure 2: Perceived Negativity, Select Demographic Groups, RCV cities and Plurality cities
Further reading:
- Haley Smith, Sarah John and Andrew Douglas summarize the findings from the 2013 and 2014 surveys in Ranked Choice Voting in Practice: Candidate Civility in Ranked Choice Elections, 2013 & 2014 Survey Brief.
- Sarah John explores likely voters' perceptions of campaign tone and civility in the 2014 poll of California cities in Ranked Choice Voting in Practice: Candidate Civility in Bay Area Elections, November 2014.
- Sarah John reports on the socioeconomic and demographic aspects of support for and experiences with RCV in local elections in Socioeconomic and Demographic Perspectives on Ranked Choice Voting in the Bay Area.
- Andrew Douglas explores the findings from the 2013 survey in Ranked Choice Voting and Civility: New Evidence from American Cities.
- Professor Caroline J. Tolbert examines voter experiences in the 2013 election season in Tolbert, Caroline J. Experiments in Election Reform: Voter Perceptions of Campaigns Under Ranked Choice Voting vs. Plurality Voting. Paper prepared for the Workshop on Electoral Systems, Electoral Reform, and Implications for Democratic Performance. Stanford University, March 14-15, 2014.
