[EL] Numbers from 1st ranked choice voting contests for major party presidential primaries

Sun Apr 19 15:22:28 PDT 2020

Hi, Folks

The presidential primary season isn't as compelling as it was a few weeks
ago, of course, but contests are still being decided -- including ones
where a substantial number of votes were cast last month. Several
Democratic contests are showcasing ranked choice voting twinned with 100%
absentee voting.

More than two-thirds of votes in the Nevada Democratic caucuses were ranked
choice voting ballots cast by early voters, but the data was hard to track
aside from the fact that fewer than one out of every 300 votes were
invalidated for not having three rankings as required by the party. Now
we're getting full data sets -- from Alaska Democrats
<http://www.alaskademocrats.org/2020-presidential-primary> last
weekend and Wyoming
Democrats <https://www.wyodems.org/2020caucusresults>this weekend, with Hawaii
and Kansas next month.
<https://www.fairvote.org/rcv_for_presidential_nominations#experience_ranked_choice_voting>
See
FairVote's news release and instagram highlights below, but note:

First, turnout is up -- more than double turnout for these states when
Obama defeated Clinton in them in 2008, and sharply up from 2016.

Second, voters are handling these absentee ranked choice voting
ballots exceptionally well  - fewer than one in every 500 voters did an
overvote that invalidated their vote.

Three, they used their rankings to good effect. One  stat is that tied to
our "tracker" of wasted votes for inactive presidential candidates counted
in primaries after they dropped out-- without counting that number is up to
well over 2 million <https://www.fairvote.org/wasted_vote_tracker>. That's
about 10% of the votes to date, which is the same as the vote share for
such inactive candidates in Alaska and Wyoming -- but in those states, nine
in 10 used their "second chance" to rank Biden or Sanders. Taken
nationally, that would have meant more than 2 million more votes counting
that didn't count under the vote-for-one rule.

Ranked choice voting keeps getting out there.. More than 20 cities have it
now, and both the Republican and Democratic parties are using it at their
state conventions next weekend in Utah. In Maine, it's being used in key US
Senate and House primaries this summer, and this November it could help
determine control of the presidency (use for Maine's two statewide
electoral votes and each congressional district electoral vote), the US
Senate (Susan Collins' race ) and House (CD-2 is one of the marquee House
contests).

- Rob Richie, FairVote

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *

Press Contact: Ashley Houghton
ahoughton at fairvote.org
Wyoming Democratic Voters Turn Out For Presidential Primary In Record
Numbers,
Using Ranked Choice Voting For the First Time
*Wyoming Democratic Voters Cast Twice the Number of Ballots Than In 2016; *
*1,333 Ballots Saved That Would Have Otherwise Been “Wasted”*

* April 19, 2020* – FairVote, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for
electoral reform in the United States, hailed the use of ranked choice
voting for the first time in a major party presidential primary.  Wyoming
Democrats released results from their party-run presidential primary today:
a visual representation of the eight rounds is available here
<https://www.fairvote.org/r?u=NjA1IpQdzj2DqX2AsYOnzshs6eaXEgxY9Sx5lyWOLfobfzsdRDcZeU7tXheekx5kr9lNH1PvcA94nnLkapW3kw2tsxMw23Ofohg-sq_znq4&e=ac82c6aa8c4da347b6673ae4707a4040&utm_source=fairvote&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wyoming_primary&n=3&test_email=1>
.

Top takeaways:

   - Voter turnout was *more than double the turnout* in the 2016 caucuses.
   - After the first round, *Joe Biden had won 65.7% of the vote, Bernie
   Sanders had won 23.9%* of the vote, Elizabeth Warren had won 4.5% of the
   vote, and 5.9%  were dispersed among other candidates.
   - By the final tally, Biden had won 72.2% of the vote and Sanders had
   won 27.8% of the vote. *Biden gained 6% and Sanders gained 3.8%* of
   their final total from backers of other candidates.
   - *More than 10% of ballots were cast for candidates other than Sanders
   or Biden and would not have counted* in the final tally without ranked
   choice voting. Nearly nine in ten (89%) voters who backed withdrawn
   candidates had their ballot count for Sanders or Biden based on their
   rankings.
   - Fewer than one in 500 voters made errors that would render their
   ballots unusable; *99.8% of ballots were valid* in the first use of
   ranked choice voting in Wyoming.

Further, with ranked choice voting, the following comparisons can be made
between the Alaska primary results from last weekend and the Wyoming
results from today.

   - *Three out of four voters in each state chose to rank candidates*,
   rather than select a single candidate.
   - *More than 90% of votes from backers of inactive candidates* ended up
   counting for Biden or Sanders as a backup choice.

Comparisons between Alaska and Wyoming Democratic voters can also be seen
here
<https://www.fairvote.org/r?u=NjA1IpQdzj2DqX2AsYOnzqUoUtDn1__AqNw_YfFFxE6rIeYipnLrLtg2q9j9Txbw8bWa7ZoFAMs3pfrtX2aQn9vjN2cyGq_B9toZfDf_hws&e=ac82c6aa8c4da347b6673ae4707a4040&utm_source=fairvote&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wyoming_primary&n=4&test_email=1>
.

“Wyoming Democrats have proven that a vote-by-mail system, combined with
ranked choice voting, is an effective way to ensure the safety of both
their citizens and their elections,” shared Rob Richie, President and CEO
of FairVote.

Wyoming Democratic Party Communications Director Nina Hebert recently shared
<https://www.fairvote.org/r?u=3r5dZAmLPL7AunYRrkuOI-IgVt-1aPVNI7q0q21yN84N0nQAVMkxg_Xbgq2as-hFFF7OjhTuzbjQKaeIyb1CWX5E82wvFbk5edIua5fEk1TKuxD5wRUbhoh9WaJaflIgXrODQy5uvqy3HqOapBuPzM0id-KU4y31x_oLMf1Iu80&e=ac82c6aa8c4da347b6673ae4707a4040&utm_source=fairvote&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wyoming_primary&n=5&test_email=1>
how
the party decided to integrate vote-by-mail and ranked choice voting into
its elections: “We began working backwards from how can we make it easy for
people to vote and built the logistics around that...that is the biggest
factor that allowed us to have that double increase over what we saw in
2016.”

FairVote worked closely on voter education with nonpartisan organizations
in Wyoming, including creating a video and written materials
<https://www.fairvote.org/wyomingrcv2020?e=ac82c6aa8c4da347b6673ae4707a4040&utm_source=fairvote&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wyoming_primary&n=6&test_email=1>
.

Democrats will also use similar practices, including ranked choice voting,
in presidential primaries now underway in Hawaii and Kansas
<https://www.fairvote.org/presidential_primaries_2020?e=ac82c6aa8c4da347b6673ae4707a4040&utm_source=fairvote&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wyoming_primary&n=7&test_email=1>.
Maine voters will also use ranked choice voting in its primaries and its
general election for President, U.S. Senate and U.S. House this November.

*FairVote*
<http://www.fairvote.org/fair_rep_in_congress?e=5c371e8584e9b616c6f191c7224aeab3&utm_source=fairvote&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fra_press_release_2019&n=4&test_email=1&e=ac82c6aa8c4da347b6673ae4707a4040&utm_source=fairvote&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wyoming_primary&n=8&test_email=1>*
is
a nonpartisan champion of electoral reforms that give voters greater
choice, a stronger voice, and a representative democracy that works for all
Americans.*
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Richie
President and CEO, FairVote
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 240
Takoma Park, MD 20912
rr at fairvote.org  (301) 270-4616  http://www.fairvote.org
*FairVote Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/FairVoteReform>*   *FairVote
Twitter <https://twitter.com/fairvote>*   My Twitter
<https://twitter.com/rob_richie>

Thank you for considering a
*donation <http://www.fairvote.org/donate>. Enjoy our video on ranked
choice voting <https://youtu.be/CIz_nzP-W_c>!*
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