Helen Hutchinson from League of Women Voters – Oakland and Sean Dugar from Collective of Organizers for Reformed Elections (CORE) joined us to talk about ranked-choice voting (RCV) in Oakland. Learn how to use RCV when you vote in the General Elections. This year you may now rank your top 5 choices (previously top 3) for local seats including mayor, city council and school board. RCV allows you to choose the top five candidates who most align with your values, and allows voters to elect someone who garnered the overall support of the majority of voters – all while avoiding expensive primary elections.
“We are going to see a change in this November’s ballot. In the past we’ve gotten to have 3 choices. This time we are going to get to have up to 5…If you only have opinions about 1 or 2, you only have to vote for 1 or 2.”- Helen Hutchinson
“I think it’s great for voters, the ability to have additional backups. Because really, your rankings are your backups. Your vote stays with your first choice candidate until they’ve already lost the race and been eliminated… It allows candidates to work more broadly collectively and appeal to voters as a block rather than just as an individual stand alone candidate.” -Sean Dugar
Check out our discussion to learn more about how ranked choice voting works!