It’s that time of year again! Voting is underway for this year’s Oscar nominees. The Oscars are among the most prestigious awards in the world of cinema, celebrating excellence and innovation in filmmaking. What may be less well-known is that these awards also demonstrate excellence and innovation in voting.

This year, Virginia’s Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC) successfully implemented ranked choice voting (which they refer to as “instant runoff voting”), to select nominees for three special elections. Leaders in the ACDC have expressed their satisfaction with instant runoff voting and – according to an exit poll conducted by FairVote this May – voters liked it too. 

Ranked choice voting (RCV) ballots are already being cast by some early and absentee voters in the four Bay Area cities holding RCV elections this November. Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, and San Francisco will all be holding RCV elections on November 4th. In light of the upcoming elections, we wanted to share a few facts about ranked choice voting. 

FairVote’s booth at the annual legislative summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) was election central for the Rank Your Candy mock election using ranked choice voting. It was a hard-fought campaign and all of the candydates put forth a great effort but in the end Reese's had the broadest base of support and was declared the winner.

Instant runoff voting is the best option for conducting special elections in the District.

On Saturday, May 17, the Arlington County Democratic Committee held its primary election to select a nominee for the vacancy left by Sally Baird on the Arlington County School Board. This was the second time the Arlington County Democratic Committee used ranked choice voting to select a nominee.