The 2026 primary election in Washington, D.C., is the first time the District will use ranked choice voting to decide the outcome.
The transition from traditional “first-past-the-post” voting to ranked choice can be confusing at first, but many people and organizations are working to explain the new system.
Nonprofit organization Grow Democracy DC fought to bring ranked choice voting to the District and provides public education about how elections will work under that system. CEO Lisa D. T. Rice said the upcoming changes give voters more power in elections.
News4 spoke with Rice about the most important things to know before casting your first ranked choice ballot. Here’s what to know.
How is ranked choice voting different from ‘traditional’ voting?
The biggest difference, according to Rice, is that you can choose more than one candidate on your ballot — up to five.
“You vote for your favorite candidate first, and then rank your backup choices up to five,” Rice said. “So second, third, fourth and fifth. You can rank as many as you like, but again, only up to five.”
Under the new system, Rice said, it’s important to “only rank candidates you support.”
What does the ranking do?
Ranking candidates “allows us to get elected people into office with majority support,” Rice said. “There are no downsides to ranking more candidates. Ranking backup choices never hurts your favorites.”
How does somebody win in ranked choice voting?
The ranking only comes into play if the leading candidate, when ballots are counted, has less than 50% of the vote.
“If your first choice has a chance to win, your vote stays with them,” Rice said.
But if no candidate reaches that 50% threshold after the first count, the candidates at the bottom of the race are eliminated. Then, the ballots that went toward the eliminated candidates are counted toward their second-ranked candidate.
“If your first choice vote is eliminated, your vote simply moves to your next choice,” Rice said. “The winner always gets over 50%.”
Why might it take longer to know the winner of an election with ranked choice voting?
While the Board of Elections has shared a clear timeline for releasing election results in D.C., the final winner may take a few days after the election to calculate if no candidate reaches 50% on election night.
“They’ve chosen to release first choice results on election night, and then wait until most mail ballots are in before running the round-by-round ranked choice count on June 21,” Rice said.
D.C. gets a decent number of mail ballots that arrive after the election date, but which can still be counted toward the total number of votes. That’s the case “with or without ranked choice voting,” Rice said.
Then there’s the extra time it takes to count each round of ranking if the first count doesn’t put a candidate over 50% of the votes.
“In close, very close races, we may not know before June 21,” Rice said.
Why did the change to ranked choice voting get so many votes back in 2024?
An overwhelming majority of D.C. voters approved the change to ranked choice voting in November 2024, when 73% of voters said yes to Initiative 83.
Rice said that’s in part because of the way traditional ballots have shaped the D.C. Council.
“A lot of folks that we’ve talked to over the years are really dissatisfied with so many members of the Council being there with less than a majority of the votes,” Rice said.
She cited the 2024 race for Ward 7 as an example.
“There were 10 candidates on that primary ballot,” Rice said. “The ultimate winner only received 24% of the vote. So, in other words, 76% voted against the person who won. And voters really want a way that they can send someone into office with majority support, and that is what ranked choice voting does for us.”
I’m concerned I’ll make a mistake on the new DC primary ballot. What do I do?
There are plenty of resources to prepare yourself ahead of time and in the voting booth for the new ranked choice ballot system, Rice said.
Before heading to the polls, voters can go to rankthedistrict.org to see in detail how they can and cannot mark their ballot.
“In the voting center, there will be volunteers to help you,” Rice said. “And if your ballot, if something goes wrong with your ballot, you can get a second chance.”
News4’s Ted Oberg and Mark Segraves also walked viewers through the process with famous guitarists in an episode of 4 More Context. Oberg also spoke with a local professor who has done extensive research in ranked choice voting.
You can watch the episode in the video player below.
When is the DC Primary?
Primary day in D.C. is on June 16. Early voting has already begun in the District.
Sign up for our free deep-dive newsletter, The 4Front, to get standout News4 stories sent right to your inbox. Subscribe here.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/owLKnsS
0 Comments