Ranked choice voting (RCV) dominated last Tuesday night’s Longmont City Council meeting, drawing an outpouring of public support and setting the stage for a potential ballot measure that could reshape how the city conducts its elections. Several residents touting “RCV 4 Longmont” signs shuffled in just as the Study Session began.
RCV is a type of voting system in which voters have the option to rank candidates in order of preference (first choice, second choice, third choice, etc.). If a candidate receives more than 50% of the first choice votes, that candidate wins. If votes are spread out more evenly between three or more candidates, and no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated. For voters who selected the eliminated candidate as their first choice, their votes would be transferred to their second choice candidate. This process is repeated until a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.
Former mayoral candidate Shakeel Dalal set the tone in the council chambers that evening, describing how the current voting system requires residents to “become game theorists,” adding “Anyone who’s ever been pressured to not throw away their vote on a third party candidate or told that they must vote for the lesser of two evils to avoid a spoiler has been a victim of this game.”…