With significant power in Congress currently on the line, attention has turned to Alaska and Maine, where key electoral outcomes will be determined by ranked choice voting (RCV). This system, which has been in place in Maine since 2018 and in Alaska for the past four years, requires voters to rank candidates by preference rather than choosing just one. According to as power in Congress hangs in the balance, all eyes will be on the two crucial, Where races will be decided by a voting method that’s no different than listing your top ice cream flavors. State and federal races in the 2020 election, alaska voters adopted RCV for local.
Under the RCV framework, voters list candidates in order—first, second, third, and so on. If a candidate secures more than 50% of the first-preference rankings, they win immediately. However, if no candidate reaches that majority threshold, an instant runoff occurs. During this phase, the candidate with the fewest top-rankings is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates based on the voters’ next stated preferences. This iterative process continues until a majority is achieved. 1 rankings, votes are transferred from the candidate with the least top rankings to the other candidates based on who was ranked second, third and so on. In the final round of RCV tallying, Mamdani received the majority of Lander’s 120,634 transfer votes that he accumulated before he was eliminated and went on to beat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by more than 130,000 votes, according to election data. Inexplicable’ order probed as cause of train crash that killed at least 69: Official. Or 0.24 percentage points of the total vote, according to election data, the measure lost by just 743 votes.
Ismar Volić, director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy at Wellesley College, explains the logic behind the system: The thinking is that even if my favorite candidate has no chance of winning, I can put my support and vote for someone who I also think is good. This approach aims to reduce the impact of so-called spoiler candidates, who might otherwise siphon votes away from ideologically similar contenders in traditional plurality systems. 2 college students found dead after going missing while hiking, police say. Britt McHenry resigns from State Department after basketball game altercation.
Despite its adoption, the system remains a subject of intense debate regarding its effectiveness and the learning curve for the electorate. Opposition from political figures has grown; to date, 19 states have enacted bans on the practice. Notably, voters in Alaska are currently weighing a ballot question to determine if the state will abandon the system, a move that follows rhetoric from critics who have labeled the method a way to cheat. According to opposition from elected officials has risen over the last few years, with 19, Banning the practice. He said, the end result is a victor who represents a bigger majority of the electorate.
David McCune, a mathematics professor at William Jewell College, notes that the primary impact of RCV is the mitigation of spoiler effects. He cited historical examples, such as the 2014 Maine gubernatorial race, where a candidate won with less than 50% of the vote amidst a split field. By allowing voters to rank a third-party candidate alongside a major-party choice, RCV facilitates the transfer of support, ultimately favoring the candidate with broader appeal. For example, in the 2014 Maine governor’s race Republican Paul LePage won with under 50% of the vote in a race among LePage, Democrat Mike Michaud and independent candidate Eliot Cutler. He pointed to the 2025 New York Democratic mayoral primary where then-State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and then-City Comptroller Brad Lander crossed endorsed each other and encouraged their supporters to rank the other c.
Evidence regarding the impact of RCV is mixed but points toward increased competitiveness. The evidence points to the fact that elections become more competitive when you switch to RCV,” McCune told.
According to David Kimball, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at St.
Louis, the system also forces candidates to alter their campaign strategies.
Because hostility can alienate voters who have ranked other candidates, negative campaigning becomes less effective.
Kimball noted that candidates are increasingly incentivized to seek second or third-choice endorsements from their opponents to build a winning coalition.
Data compiled by Volić and McCune suggests that RCV does not systematically benefit one party over another. While instances of spoiler outcomes are rare, they are not impossible; researchers pointed to the 2022 Alaska special election, where Republican Sarah Palin split the initial vote, allowing Democrat Mary Peltola to surpass the 50% threshold. However, subsequent cycles show that the field remains dynamic, with Republican Nick Begich later defeating Peltola in the 2024 runoff. Including Alabama, Florida and Ohio, passed laws that banned the process between 2022 and 2026, eighteen state legislatures. In 2024, a ballot initiative championed by state Republicans was given to voters asking them to repeal RCV.
As of October 2026, roughly 10.3 million voters across 14 cities, as well as the states of Maine and Alaska, utilize RCV. In this year’s midterm elections, the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center estimates that 3.9 million voters will cast ballots under this method. Researchers maintain that while political polarization has complicated public understanding of the system, voters should evaluate the mechanics of RCV independently of partisan narratives to ensure their true preferences are accurately reflected. It is essential to look at the pros and cons of RCV and how it addresses the concerns from voters, volić and other political and mathematical researchers stressed that as this debate continues across electorates. With most tallying the runoff rounds that night, electorates that use the system tally the votes with computer programs. This usually happens quickly. Volić warned that the polarization in current politics has led to more misinformation and misunderstandings about the system.
