Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Rank choice voting: A day of wins

Rank choice voting: A day of wins
Getty Images

FairVote, a nonpartisan organization, recently announced that election day 2023 was an historic election year for ranked choice voting (RCV). Ranked choice voting is the fastest-growing nonpartisan voting reform in the nation; with recent ballot wins, it has won 27 city ballot measures in a row.

Ranked choice voting, sometimes known as instant runoff voting, gives voters the option to rank candidates in order of preference, first, second, third and so forth. Ranked-choice voting advocates say it will help prevent the increasingly polarized election campaigns, increase the number of women and minority candidates running for office, and reduce negative campaigning.


Three cities in Michigan – Kalamazoo, East Lansing, and Royal Oak – voted to adopt RCV. 71 percent of Kalamazoo voters, 52 percent of East Lansing voters, and 51 percent of Royal Oak voters voted for RCV. Add to this that both Minnetonka, MN and Easthampton, MA voted to keep or expand RCV and you have a clean sweep for ranked choice voting this past election day

RCV was used successfully in eleven cities across six states, including for the first time in Boulder, CO. Ten more cities will use RCV this month, when Utah holds its Election Day on November 21.

“Election Day 2023 showed once again that voters want ranked choice voting,” said Deb Otis, Director of Research and Policy at FairVote. “American voters are dissatisfied with our politics, and in 27 city ballot measures in a row, they’ve said ‘yes’ to better choices, better campaigns, and better representation. Everywhere it’s used, voters like and understand RCV, taking advantage of the opportunity to vote honestly and express more choices. We’ll continue this progress later this month in Utah and again in 2024, when at least Oregon and Nevada will vote on adopting RCV statewide and five states and territories are poised to use RCV for their presidential primaries.”

Ranked choice voting continues to grow across the nation, moving from just ten cities in 2016 to approximately 50 cities, counties, and states now (including the states of Alaska and Maine).

Larry Diamond, the former director of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law has concluded that ranked-choice voting is the most promising reform to democratize and depolarize politics in America.

“We are really settling on ranked-choice voting as the most promising reform to democratize and depolarize our politics. I think it’s not only here to stay but that it’s gaining support across the country. A lot of research shows that when you, as a candidate, go negative, you hurt public perceptions of yourself, but you do more damage to your opponent, and in plurality elections, this tradeoff can pay off,” says Diamond, the Stanford researcher. “But since candidates are forced to rely on second and third-place votes in ranked-choice elections, negative campaigning can open the way for a third candidate to gain support. It becomes much more costly to go negative since you risk losing your ability to pick up second-preference votes, and it actually does more harm than good,”

As more and more cities and states adopt ranked choice voting, we’ll learn quickly whether RVC is indeed paying dividends to lessen polarization in America.

Read More

Dozens of Questions: How Are Trump’s Auto Parts Tariffs Affecting the Broader Economy?

Photo of a car being assembled by robotic arms

Lenny Kuhne via Unsplash

Dozens of Questions: How Are Trump’s Auto Parts Tariffs Affecting the Broader Economy?

President Donald Trump made economic waves earlier this year when he announced a 25% tariff on imported automobiles and parts with the stated goal of revitalizing U.S. auto manufacturing. Yet as of summer 2025, the majority (92%) of Mexican-made auto parts continue to enter the United States tariff-free.

That’s because of a March 2025 revision that exempts cars and parts manufactured in compliance with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) from tariffs.

Keep ReadingShow less
LGBTQ Refugees Came to America To Escape Discrimination. Now, They Live in Fear in the U.S.
blue and yellow abstract painting
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

LGBTQ Refugees Came to America To Escape Discrimination. Now, They Live in Fear in the U.S.

Salvadoran refugee Alberto, who is using a pseudonym out of safety concerns, did not feel secure in his own home. Being a gay man in a country known for state-sponsored violence and community rejection meant Alberto lived his life on high alert.

His family did not accept him. He says one family member physically attacked him because of his identity. He says he has been followed, harassed, and assaulted by police, accused of crimes he didn’t commit when he was studying to become a social worker. His effort to escape the rejection in his community left him, at one point, homeless and lost in a new city.

Keep ReadingShow less