On Tuesday, Portland, Oregon’s Charter Commission voted 17 to 3 to send a referendum that includes proportional ranked choice voting (PRCV) to the November ballot. If it passes, the city would be divided into 4 geographic districts of equal population. Each district would elect 3 members to the city council using PRCV, which picks winners in accordance with the size of voting blocks in the city.

Australia’s May 21st parliamentary election received global news coverage thanks to the major success of women and candidates who prioritize climate change. The election showed the potential of ranked choice voting, called “preferential voting” in Australia, to pick leaders who accurately reflect the public will rather than the political extreme.

Burlington, Vermont will now get to use ranked choice voting (RCV) in their city council elections. This recent change was possible thanks to support from the state legislature, which passed a bill allowing the city’s charter amendment implementing RCV to take effect. Burlington is the first city to adopt RCV this year, a decision which was overwhelmingly supported by more than ⅔ of Burlington voters in a March 2021 referendum.

On April 20, the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation released an in-depth survey finding that 61% of Americans favor using ranked choice voting in federal elections.

On Thursday, April 28, from 12 pm to 12:45 pm EDT, join us on Twitter Spaces for our discussion, “2020's Redistricting Nightmare, and How to Avoid It in 2030.”

Ruby-red Utah, purple Maine, and blue California are the states with the most widespread current use of RCV -- in 23 cities in Utah, and in all federal elections and state-level primaries Maine, and for nearly two decades in major California cities like San Francisco & Oakland. Additionally, at least two more California cities will implement RCV in 2022.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen dozens of articles from top national and local media outlets on Alaska’s unique new election system, which combines open primaries and ranked choice voting (RCV).

Ranked choice voting (RCV) is already the nation’s fastest growing voting reform, with statewide adoption in Maine and Alaska and local use in dozens of cities nationwide. At FairVote, we take seriously our mission to make implementing RCV even easier for state and local governments by making resources available to anyone committed to election reform.

On April 11, we’re hosting the FairVote Awards in New York City to celebrate recent election reform wins and lift up several of the incredible people who are working each day to fix American democracy.

With Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing starting today, it’s critical to consider questions about voting rights and democracy that might come before a Justice Jackson.