U.S. Senator Cory Booker announced Monday that he is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, joining recently withdrawn candidates Julián Castro and Marianne Wiliamson. FairVote’s ranked choice voting (RCV) polls of South Carolina in December and the nation last September can help us understand how the news may impact the race. 

While RCV will not be used in the actual New Hampshire primary, many voters in the state will still get a taste of the method. Here's why:

Ranked choice voting rang in the new year with a prominent endorsement: that of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders, at a December 28 Concord, NH town hall sponsored by Equal Citizens and Open Democracy Action, indicated his support for the method, saying ranked choice voting (RCV) “is something I support.”

Prominent New York Times columnist David Leonhardt provided a resounding endorsement of ranked choice voting in a recent column. Read about it here:

According to our recent poll of South Carolina Democrats, under the current system--where votes are not ranked and voters can only choose a single candidate--Joe Biden would have received all of South Carolina’s delegates, despite receiving significantly less than a majority of first-choice support. A RCV system would better represent the preferences of the electorate. Heres' why.

On December 9, FairVote released a ranked choice voting YouGov poll of South Carolina Democratic primary voters. Check out the largest media hits on the innovative poll.

The House of Representatives passed HR4. The bill would restore the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, empowering the Department of Justice to stop voter suppression laws before they go into effect.

An enthusiastic crowd of good government activists and conscientious citizens gathered in the Rayburn House Office Building this past Monday, November 18, to honor FairVote’s 2019 “Champions of Democracy.”

For elections to be fair and legitimate, voters must have meaningful choices. The United States Supreme Court has held that states cannot excessively restrict choices on the general election ballot, for example by imposing harsh signature gathering requirements. However, the Court has not yet clarified what limits exist and a new case from California may test the limit and provide further clarity.

Rarely has a policy debate so divided and paralyzed a nation as the issue of “Brexit” in the United Kingdom. In a 2016 national referendum, British voters narrowly approved leaving the European Union. The aftermath and turmoil ever since provides a case study in how such divisions are poorly handled by a plurality, single-choice voting system.