Ranked-choice voting

In a ranked-choice race you rank the candidates in order of preference instead of picking one. Your ballot is counted in rounds, and if your first choice is eliminated it counts for your next choice. Some places call it instant-runoff voting.

How do I fill out the ballot?

Mark one candidate as your first choice, another as your second choice, and so on. You may rank as many or as few candidates as you like. Ranking a second choice never hurts your first choice. In a race for one seat, your ballot counts for your second choice only if your first choice has been eliminated; in a race for several seats, part of it can also move to your second choice when your first choice wins with votes to spare. Do not give two candidates the same rank, and do not rank the same candidate twice; most ballots treat either one as a mistake for that rank. Some jurisdictions cap the number of rankings; the cap is printed on the ballot.

How are the votes counted?

1. Every ballot counts for its first choice. A candidate with more than half of those votes wins.
2. If no one has a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Each ballot that ranked that candidate first now counts for its next choice.
3. Repeat until one candidate has more than half of the ballots still counting.

A ballot that ranked only eliminated candidates stops counting; election officials call it an exhausted ballot. Results are usually posted in rounds, and in a close race the final round can take days to tabulate after election day.

What if the race elects more than one person?

Some ranked-choice races fill several seats at once, such as the three council seats in each Portland, Oregon district. A candidate wins by reaching a share of the vote, not a majority: with three seats the threshold is just over 25 percent. Votes a winner receives beyond the threshold transfer to those ballots’ next choices, the last-place candidate is eliminated when no one reaches it, and the rounds continue until every seat is filled. The race page shows how many seats a contest fills.

Which November 2026 races use it?

Maine uses ranked-choice voting for its U.S. Senate and U.S. House general elections but not for governor or the state legislature. Alaska uses it for every state and federal office after its top-four primary. The District of Columbia uses it in any contest with three or more candidates, so some of its races rank and others say vote for one. Cities and counties using it include San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, and Albany in California; Boulder, Colorado (mayor); Portland, Maine; Portland, Corvallis, and Multnomah County in Oregon; and Arlington County, Virginia (county board). On Elections Simplified, each of these races carries a ranked-choice note on its card and its page. A race with no note is counted the usual way or its method has not been recorded.

Where does this come from?

The list of jurisdictions follows each state and city’s own election office and the 2026 tracking table published by FairVote. Read more about how the site is built on the How it works page.