On the Ballot Episode 135 RCV’s-big-year-at-the-ballot-box

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On The Ballot is a podcast presented by Ballotpedia that connects people to politics.

Each week, Ballotpedia's election experts will unpack the week's top political stories. Ballotpedia's here to give you the facts, so you can form your own opinion. Stream On the Ballot on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Episode #135

RCV’s big year at the ballot box

On this episode: Few voting methods have gained as much traction and been in the spotlight these last few years as Ranked Choice Voting, commonly known as RCV. How it works is right in its name; voters rank candidates according to their preference and ballots are processed in rounds. The candidate in the last place is eliminated during each round and the voters’ second choices get their votes. The process is continued until a candidate wins a simple majority (50 percent plus one) of the vote.

In just a few weeks, RCV will be one of the hottest ballot measure questions to watch, with six states deciding on initiatives to adopt, repeal, or pre-empt ranked-choice voting. We cover RCV very closely here at Ballotpedia – we’ve got a great in-depth guide in the show notes for you, filled with everything you need to know about how it works, its history, arguments for and against, and more.

Guest(s): Ballot measures staff writer Victoria Rose

Key Highlights

  • Get up to date on the measures in front of voters on November 5th and learn more about how RCV works.
  • We ran a four-part series near the end of last year that broke down everything you need to know about RCV – follow the links below to listen:





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