RCV is Easy to Use, and Voters Prefer RCV
Cities have held over 800 elections using RCV since 2004, with 40+ million RCV ballots cast. Despite claims that RCV is confusing, voters who have used it overwhelmingly say two things: RCV is easy to understand and RCV is better than “choose-one” systems (like Sacramento’s).
As of July 2025, fifty-two cities, counties, and states, with over 14 million voters are using RCV.
Voters who use RCV overwhelmingly say RCV is easy to understand, including many first-time RCV voters.
Evidence from communities already using RCV:
96% of voters in New York City’s 2025 primary found it easy to complete their ballot. More than three-quarters want to keep RCV, or even expand it to additional races (Survey USA).
This is similar to the 95% of New York voters who said it was simple the first time New York used RCV in 2021.
In 2024, 84% of Alaska voters said RCV is simple.
In 2024, 82% of Maine voters said RCV is easy, and 57% liked having the ability to rank candidates.
In 2024 in California Bay Area cities, 92% of voters understood RCV well. 70% wanted to keep or expand RCV.
In 2024, 88% of Arlington, VA voters said RCV is easy, and 67% supported using RCV in future elections.
In 2024, Portland, OR voters preferred RCV to the previous voting method by more than a 2-to-1 margin (63%-28%). 91% of voters understood RCV.
In Utah cities in 2023, 94% of voters were satisfied with RCV. 82% said it is easy, and 67% said they were more likely to vote for their favorite candidate because of RCV.
In 2023, 86% of Boulder, CO voters said RCV was easy. 77% were satisfied with their voting experience
In 2022, 56% of Virginia Republican primary voters who used RCV in congressional primaries reported that they prefer RCV to single-choice elections.
In 2021, 88% of Minneapolis, MN voters found RCV simple. 76% wanted to continue using RCV.
In 2018, 94% of Santa Fe voters reported feeling “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their first use of RCV.
RCV is well understood across all racial and ethnic communities. There are no differences in RCV cities in how White, Black, and Latinx respondents report understanding RCV. (See Self-reported understanding of ranked-choice voting, by Todd Donovan, Caroline Tolbert, and Kellen Gracey, 2019).
Voters understand RCV better than they understand “traditional” systems, like Sacramento’s. In two surveys of likely voters in cities using RCV, 90% and 89% of respondents said they found the RCV ballot easy to understand. The level of understanding was high across demographic and socioeconomic groups. (See Socioeconomic and demographic perspectives on Ranked Choice Voting in the Bay Area. Sarah John and Caroline Tolbert, 2015). The percentage of voters in RCV cities who understand RCV at least “somewhat well” (84%) is actually higher than the share of voters in cities who understand their more traditional systems (83%). More respondents (49%) in RCV cities reported understanding RCV extremely or very well than reported understanding the top-two primary extremely or very well (40%). (See Socioeconomic and demographic perspectives on Ranked Choice Voting in the Bay Area. Sarah John and Caroline Tolbert, 2015).
RCV is a hallmark of modern democracy around the world. Outside the United States, RCV is also used in many other countries, where polling consistently finds higher rates of voter satisfaction and lower rates of polarization when compared with the U.S.
Go to FairVote.org for more info about:
The evidence is clear: RCV is simple, inclusive, and preferred – easy to understand across socioeconomic and demographic groups. Cities that have it, like it.
The League of Women Voters supports RCV and supports a concerted voter education effort during implementation.