Ranked-choice voting, explained: how instant-runoff counting works

In a typical election you pick one candidate, and whoever gets the most votes wins — even if that is less than a majority. Ranked-choice voting (RCV) changes that. Instead of choosing one, you rank candidates in order of preference. The counting then works like a series of runoffs, using the same ballots.

If you remember one thing, remember this: with ranked-choice voting you rank candidates 1-2-3; the counting eliminates the lowest vote-getter round by round and reallocates those voters’ next choices, until a candidate reaches a majority. It is designed to find a majority winner in a single election.

How the counting works

The ballot looks different — a grid with columns for first choice, second choice, third, and so on. The counting proceeds in rounds:

1. Count first choices. Every ballot’s top-ranked candidate gets one vote.
2. Check for a majority. If a candidate has more than 50% of the votes in the round, that candidate wins — done.
3. Eliminate the lowest. If nobody has a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated.
4. Reallocate. Each ballot that ranked the eliminated candidate first now counts for its next-highest remaining choice.
5. Repeat. The reallocation continues round after round until one candidate crosses the 50% mark.

In practice, ranked-choice voting changes the result only in a race with more than two candidates. In a two-candidate race the first-choice votes alone decide the winner — exactly as under a single-choice ballot — so the method is used only where three or more candidates are running, as Maine’s rules state.

Why “instant runoff”

Ranked-choice voting is often called “instant-runoff voting” because it does in one election what a traditional system does in two. Under a runoff system, if no candidate wins a majority on Election Day, the state holds a separate runoff weeks later between the top finishers. Ranked-choice voting reaches the same kind of result without a second trip to the polls, by re-tallying the ranked ballots over successive rounds.

A quick illustration

The first choices come out A=45, B=35, C=20. No candidate has a majority, so C — with 20 votes — is eliminated first. Those 20 ballots now count for whichever candidate each voter ranked second: say 12 move to B and 8 to A. The next round tallies A=53, B=47. A now has more than 50%, so A wins. That is the core mechanic in action: each round, the eliminated candidate’s support flows to voters’ next choices, until one candidate holds a majority.

Single-winner vs. multi-winner

Ranked-choice voting refers to a family of methods. For single-winner races (a single seat), the form described above — instant-runoff — is standard. For multi-winner races (several seats at once, like a multi-member city council), a related proportional variant known as the single transferable vote is used. Both let voters rank candidates, but they count them differently to fill more than one seat. Whether a given race uses one form or the other is set by state and local law.

Where it’s used — and the legal map

Whether you will ever vote on a ranked-choice ballot depends entirely on where you are. According to NCSL, Alaska and Maine use ranked-choice voting for statewide elections, and a range of cities and municipalities use it — for example, New York City uses it in primaries, and several cities in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Minnesota have adopted it.

The legal status behind that map varies widely: some states expressly permit or require ranked-choice voting (with statutes on the books), some prohibit it in all or some elections, and the remainder neither permit nor prohibit it explicitly. Because the rules are set by state law, the counts shift over time — for the current state-by-state picture, NCSL’s ranked-choice-voting page is the standard nonpartisan tracker.

What the debate is about

Ranked-choice voting has camps on both sides, and both arguments are made in good faith:

• Supporters say it elects a winner with majority support without the cost and lower turnout of a separate runoff, and can reduce the “spoiler” effect of minor candidates.
• Critics say the ranking system is more complex for voters, and — because not everyone ranks every candidate — that some ballots run out of choices before the counting ends, so the ultimate winner is not always a majority of all votes originally cast.

This article takes no position on those arguments; it only describes how the method works.

Where to get official information

• Your state or local election office — the only authority on whether a given race in your area uses ranked-choice voting and how your ballot is structured. The EAC’s state lookup points to each one: eac.gov/vote.
• NCSL’s “Ranked Choice Voting” page — a nonpartisan, state-by-state tracker of where ranked-choice voting is used, permitted, or prohibited.
• vote.gov — the official federal voting-information site, in place since 2016 and administered by the General Services Administration until the EAC assumed management of the site in 2025; the EAC now operates and hosts it.
• The network’s Voting & Elections topic page collects these explainers, alongside How Midterm Elections Work, What Is a Ballot Measure?, and Who Certifies Election Results?.

The bottom line

Ranked-choice voting lets voters rank candidates by preference instead of picking one; the counting eliminates the lowest candidate each round and reallocates those voters’ next choices until someone reaches a majority — which is why it’s called “instant-runoff.” Whether a race uses it, and how, is set by state law: some states require or permit it, some ban it, others are silent. To find out whether your ballot uses ranked-choice voting, check with your state or local election office or vote.gov.

Counsel is the law site of the Omni Mundi Compendium network. How federal agencies describe their own role in civic life is covered in What Is America.gov? The New Federal Front Door, Explained.

This article is general information about ranked-choice voting in U.S. elections, not legal advice, and not official voting information. Whether ranked-choice voting is used, and how it is counted, varies by state and locality and can change. Confirm current details with your state or local election office or at vote.gov before relying on them. It is AI-written and independently AI-reviewed before publication; the review standard and this article’s findings are recorded in the network’s editorial review log.