Op-ed: Santa Clara County residents favor ranked choice voting

It was 1998, the year of the Ask Jeeves search engine, Titanic and the Spice Girls. California elected Gray Davis to succeed Pete Wilson as governor, and Santa Clara County voters adopted ranked choice voting (RCV) for local elections.

More than 25 years later, the Spice Girls have had a reunion tour and no one is asking “Jeeves” anything. But voters in Santa Clara County are still waiting for ranked choice voting.

It’s time to give voters what they want. Any legal obstacles that prevented implementation in 1998 have been removed. Six cities across California now vote with RCV. Santa Clara County should join them.

RCV is on the march in California. Earlier this month, Redondo Beach in Los Angeles County successfully used RCV for the first time March 4 to elect their mayor and city council. They joined five other cities here in the Bay Area that have long used it as well.

That’s millions of Californians from across the state who successfully use RCV to elect their leaders, just a small portion of the 14 million voters across the country who do the same.

All these California communities agree: RCV is easy to use and understand. They like it, and they want to keep it.

Back in 1998, 54% of us here in Santa Clara County agreed. In those days, RCV felt novel and new. Now it’s practically commonplace, not only here, but in states such as Maine and Alaska, cities including New York, Portland and Minneapolis and communities from Massachusetts to Utah.

Every community has its own reasons for adopting RCV. Some like its proven ability to give voters more voice and choice. Some value the way it determines a majority winner, ends the “spoiler problem” in races with more than two candidates and allows independent candidates to be heard. Others want to bring about more civil elections and encourage candidates to speak to everyone.

It works like this: In an RCV election, voters rank candidates in order of preference — first, second and so on. If a candidate receives a majority of first choices, they win. If not, an “instant runoff” takes place. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. If your candidate is still in the running, your vote stays with him or her. But if your first choice is eliminated, your vote automatically counts for your next choice. This continues until a candidate wins with a majority.

RCV allows voters to support their favorite candidate without fear they’ll “waste” their vote on a long shot. Cities that use RCV have seen increased representation for women and people of color.

Voters are on board: After Redondo Beach used RCV for the first time on March 4, 83% of voters said they found ranking candidates to be easy and 61% of voters said they favored RCV.

Support is even higher in the Bay Area. In a January poll, 92% of voters in Bay Area cities that use RCV said they understand it. That’s more than the 86% who said they understand “top-two” voting, the system used in California to elect state and federal officials. Moreover, 70% of voters said they wanted to keep using RCV in their local elections.

Since Santa Clara County first embraced RCV 1998, support has only grown. A 2024 poll found 64% of Santa Clara County voters support using RCV in countywide and local elections, including strong majorities across all racial groups.

Santa Clara County voters made it clear that they liked and understood RCV 27 years ago. After nearly three decades, it’s time to bring RCV to Santa Clara County.

Marcela Miranda-Caballero is executive director of CalRCV. Steve Chessin is president of Californians for Electoral Reform.