Ranked-choice voting (RCV) can refer to one of several ranked voting methods used in some cities and states in the United States. The term refers to the general category of voting systems where voters rank candidates. In the US, the specific system is most often instant-runoff voting (IRV) or single transferable vote (STV), the main difference between the two being whether only one winner or multiple winners are elected. At the federal and state level, instant-runoff voting is used for congressional and presidential elections in Maine; state, congressional, and presidential general elections in Alaska; and special congressional elections in Hawaii. Since 2025, it is also used for all elections in the District of Columbia.
Single transferable voting, only possible in multi-winner contests, is not currently used in state or congressional elections. It is used to elect city councillors in Portland, Oregon, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and several other cities."A wave of cities across the U.S. switch to fair voting systems" https://electoral-reform.org.uk/a-wave-of-cities-across-the-united-states-switch-to-fair-voting-systems/ accessed June 11, 2025"Cambridge STV rules" https://opavote.com/methods/cambridge-stv-rules accessed June 11, 2025
As of April 2025, RCV is used for local elections in 47 US cities including Salt Lake City and Seattle. It has also been used by some state political parties in party-run primaries and nominating conventions. As a contingency in the case of a runoff election, ranked ballots are used by overseas voters in six states.
Since 2020, voters in seven states have rejected ballot initiatives that would have implemented, or allowed legislatures to implement, ranked choice voting. As of March 2026, ranked-choice voting has also been banned in nineteen states. Complexity, cost, difficulty of voting, and issues of transparency have been cited as barriers to adoption.
History Most elections in the United States use the first past the post system, often with primary elections. Other systems that have been used entailed ranked votes. IRV, STV and Contingent vote (AKA supplementary voting) use secondary rankings on ranked votes as contingency votes; Nanson's method and Bucklin voting, which have also been used, consider secondary rankings as pertinent alongside first preferences.
The preferential voting system used in the primary elections of Wisconsin and Minnesota in the 1910s was a form of supplementary voting., p. 6 Between 1912 and 1930, supplementary voting, typically with only two rankings allowed and only two rounds of voting, was implemented in some election systems used in the U.S. The reform was later repealed.
Proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV) was used in about 24 U.S. cities prior to 1940. PR-STV was first used in North America in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1915. PR-STV was also used for the election of the nine-member city council of Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1924 to 1957, and in Cleveland, Ohio and Sacramento, California. New York City adopted STV in 1936 as a method for breaking the corrupt political machine of Tammany Hall dominating the city and used it for five elections from 1937 to 1945. Cambridge, Massachusetts started using proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote in 1941 for its city council and school committee elections, and have continued to use it until the present.
Starting in the early 2000s, instant-runoff voting was adopted in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout Minnesota. The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota adopted the usage of PR-STV for its Board of Estimate and Taxation and a combination of instant-runoff voting for district elections and PR-STV for at-large elections of its Park and Recreation Board.
Instant-runoff voting was also adopted in the cities of Aspen and Burlington during the early 2000s. They were repealed within a decade of their adoption. Burlington re-adopted instant-runoff voting in 2021.
Both Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon adopted STV around 2022. The Oregon city's implementation only applied to its new city council system, whose members are to be elected in three-seat wards, whereas Portland, Maine's implementation applies to all of the city's bodies where elected in multi-winner contests. (However in the 2024 election no members were elected in multi-member contests.)https://www.portlandmaine.gov/178/Ranked-Choice-Voting-FAQ assessed March 5, 2025"City of Portland Maine" https://content.civicplus.com/api/assets/92685cc4-f29e-4ac4-b388-3cee9494182a?cache=1800 accessed June 11, 2025
The proposed Fair Representation Act would require multi-member districts for elections to the US House of Representatives which would then be elected by STV. States with only one representative would instead have elections by instant-runoff voting.
Use of instant-runoff voting at state and federal levels Maine, 2018–present
State and congressional elections In 2018, Maine began using instant-runoff voting for primary and general elections for the U.S. Senate and House, and for primary elections for governor and the state legislature. Maine was the first state to use instant-runoff voting for all these elections.
In 2016, Maine voters approved Maine Question 5 with 52% of the vote, approving instant-runoff voting for primary and general elections for governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House and the state legislature, starting in 2018. However, in May 2017, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court stated that instant-runoff voting can be used only for federal offices and primary elections for state offices because the state constitution specifies that a plurality suffices to win general elections for state offices.
In October 2017, the state legislature voted to delay implementation of Question 5 until 2021, at which time the entire Question would be considered repealed unless a constitutional amendment had been passed permitting instant-runoff voting for general elections for state offices. Maine voters then collected enough signatures to put a Question on the June 2018 ballot to veto the October 2017 law. The people's veto, Question 1, passed in the June 2018 election. This election also initiated the use of instant-runoff voting for state and federal primaries because the presence of Question 1 on the ballot suspended the October 2017 law.
In the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in Maine, though Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin led by 2,171 votes in the first round of vote tabulation in the 2nd Congressional District, he did not have a majority of the votes, initiating the instant runoff tabulation process. Poliquin filed a lawsuit in federal court on November 13, seeking an order to halt the second-round tabulation of ballots and declare RCV unconstitutional, but his request for an injunction to halt the counting was denied. On November 15, the Maine Secretary of State announced Democratic candidate Jared Golden as the winner by 3,509 votes, after votes for independent candidates Tiffany Bond and Will Hoar were eliminated and ballots with these votes had their second- or third-choice votes counted.
Poliquin requested a recount of the ballots just before the deadline of November 26. On December 14, with almost half of the votes recounted and with the result not being significantly changed, Poliquin ended the recount after incurring $15,000 in fees. Poliquin continued his lawsuit and asked the judge, Lance Walker, to order a new election be held should he decline to hold instant runoff unconstitutional. Judge Walker ruled against Poliquin on December 13, rejecting all of his arguments.
Poliquin appealed to the Court of Appeals in Boston and requested an order to prevent Golden from being certified as the winner, but that request was also rejected. On December 24, Poliquin dropped his lawsuit, allowing Golden to take the seat.
Instant-runoff voting was retained for the 2020 U.S. Senate and U.S. House elections.
Presidential elections On August 26, 2019, the Maine Legislature passed a bill adopting instant-runoff voting for both presidential primaries and the general election. On September 6, 2019, Governor Janet Mills allowed the bill to become law without her signature, which delayed it from taking effect until after the 2020 presidential primaries in March. It was used in the general election, making Maine the first state to use instant runoff for a presidential general election.
In June 2020, the Maine Republican Party filed signatures for a veto referendum to ask voters if they want the law repealed and preclude the use of instant runoff for the 2020 election. Matthew Dunlap, Maine's secretary of state, rejected a number of signatures that had not been collected by a registered voter as required under the state constitution, resulting in there being insufficient signatures for the veto referendum to qualify for the ballot. A challenge to Dunlap's decision in Maine Superior Court was successful for the Maine Republican Party, but the case was appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. On September 8, the court issued a stay of the Superior Court ruling pending appeal on the merits, causing confusion and uncertainty regarding the 2020 election. Nevertheless, ballots began being printed later that day without the veto referendum and including instant runoff for the presidential election. The court ruled in favor of the secretary of state on September 22, allowing instant runoff to be used. An emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court claiming a First Amendment violation was denied by Justice Stephen Breyer (the circuit justice for the First Circuit) on October 6.
It was predicted that implementation of instant runoff could potentially delay the projection of the winner(s) of Maine's electoral votes for days after election day, and could also complicate interpretation of the national popular vote. However, the 2020 United States presidential election in Maine was won statewide and in the 1st congressional district by Joe Biden and in the 2nd congressional district by Donald Trump with majorities, so instant runoff vote transfers did not need to be conducted, and did not impact the determination of the winners or the national popular vote tally.
Alaska, 2022–present In the 2020 Alaska elections, voters approved Measure 2, which replaced party primaries with a nonpartisan jungle primary, in which the top 4 candidates advance to a general election that uses instant-runoff voting. This system is now used for all state, federal, and presidential elections (except presidential primaries, which continue to be partisan). The first election using the system was held on August 16, 2022, and elected Democrat Mary Peltola to Congress over Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich.
In 2024, Alaskans voted on a measure to repeal the ranked-choice voting system and return to partisan primaries. Following an extended vote count, the measure narrowly failed by a margin of 737 votes, keeping the ranked-choice voting system in place. Another measure seeking to repeal the ranked-choice voting system gathered enough signatures to appear on Alaska ballots in 2026.
Hawaii, 2023–present On June 17, 2022, Hawaii Governor David Ige signed Senate Bill 2162 into law allowing for the use of instant-runoff voting for the special election of federal and county council offices. Special elections in Hawaii have candidates of all parties appear on the same ballot. Before the change to instant-runoff voting, the winner was whoever received a plurality of votes, unique among states. The bill's author, State Senator Karl Rhoads, expressed support for the usage of instant-runoff voting in special elections stating: "You often get a long list of people who are running and what it results in if it's just the plurality winner, you can get a winner with 10% of the vote, and that doesn't really truly reflect the will of the people [in] that district".