Support for RCV

Ranked choice voting has drawn support as a sensible solution to problems with our elections, with backers including leading newspapers, political leaders, electoral reform commissions and organizations. Here is a sample of that support that focuses in particular on the single-winner form of ranked choice voting.

Newspapers & Magazines
(additional articles Here):

• The New York Times with a general position in 2018 and with a position in support of RCV for presidential primaries in 2020
• The Washington Post in a long series of editorials, including this editorial about city council elections in 2020 and this editorial focused on Maryland and Virginia in 2019
• The Boston Globe in a general editorial in 2018 and in favor of a state ballot measure in 2020
• The Economist magazine in 2018
• Publications in cities with RCV, including the Portland Press Herald (2011), Santa Fe New Mexican (2018) and Minneapolis Star Tribune (in 2016)

National Political Leaders 

• Both major party presidential nominees in 2008 had taken leadership roles in supporting RCV, including in this radio ad in 2002 by Sen. John McCain (R) and this pro-RCV legislation sponsored by Barack Obama in 2002
• Major party presidential candidates have backed ranked choice voting, including in: these video clips from Bernie Sanders (in 2019) and Andrew Yang (in 2019); these op-eds from Elizabeth Warren (in 2020), Howard Dean (in 2016) and Bill Weld (in 2020) and the leadership role and public statements of Deval Patrick and John Kerry in a 2020 ballot measure campaign
• Minor party presidential candidates supporting ranked choice voting in the 2000’s include: Libertarian Party nominees Gary Johnson and Jo Jorgensen; Green Party nominees Jill Stein, Howie Hawkins, Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and David Cobb; and independent Evan McMullin
• Former Minnesota governor Arne Carlson (R) and U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger coauthored this 2020 Op-Ed supporting ranked choice voting in their state. 
• In 2020, Utah governor Gary Herbert (R) explained his support for ranked choice voting for primaries in this TV news story In 2019, Maine governor Janet Mills (D) explained her approval of legislation to expand RCV to presidential elections.
• Hundreds of state legislators and Members of Congress have sponsored ranked choice voting legislation

Authors and Thought Leaders

• Featured recommendation in final report of the Academy of Arts and Science’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship in 2020
• League of Women Voters positions after studies in more than 10 states
• Author Malcolm Gladwell in 2019
• Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter in 2020 book with businesswoman Katherine Gehl
• Danielle Allen, Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics in 2020 column
• Television host and comedian Hasan Minhaj in 2020 TV special
• Scholar Larry Diamond in 2018 article
• Analyst Briahna Joy Gray in 2018 commentary
• Political commentator Ben Shapiro in 2020 TV show
• Harvard law professor Larry Lessig in this 2019 column
• American Enterprise Institute’s Norm Ornstein in 2017 book with EJ Dionne & Thomas Mann
• Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen in 2020 column
• New York Times columnist David Brooks in 2018 column
• Fox political analyst Chris Stirewalt in 2018 TV interview
• Author Bill McKibben in 2020 column
• Santa Claus, City Council Member, North Pole, Alaska, in 2020 (true story)
• The Talking Heads’ David Byrne (2020), Phish’s Jon Fishman (2020) and Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic (2018) in interviews

Academic Authorities Recommending Ranked Choice Voting

In 2020 (unless otherwise noted), the scholars listed below endorsed the following statement in support of expanded use of the single-winner, “instant runoff” form of ranked choice voting as adopted in Maine in 2016: “I support greater use of ranked choice voting for federal, state, and local elections in the United States.”

Winners of Nobel Prize

• Peter Diamond, MIT (2010 award in economic sciences)
• Oliver Hart, Harvard (2016 award in economic sciences)
• Eric Maskin, Harvard University (2007 award in economic sciences)
• Roger Myerson, University of Chicago (2007 award in economic sciences)
• William Nordhaus, Yale University (2018 award in economic sciences)
• Edmund Phelps, Columbia University (2006 award in economic sciences)
• Robert Shiller, Yale University (2013 award in economic sciences)

Winners of Johan Skytte Prize (“The Nobel for political science”)

• Robert Axelrod, University of Michigan (2013 winner)
• Francis Fukuyama, Freeman Spogli Institute for Intl. Studies, Stanford (2015 winner)
• Peter Joachim Katzenstein, Cornell University (2020 winner)
• Robert Keohane, Princeton University (2005 winner)
• Arend Lijphart, University of California – San Diego (1997 winner)
• Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University (2018 winner)
• Robert Putnam, Harvard University (2006 winner)
• Philippe Schmitter, European University Institute (2009 winner)
• Rein Taagepera, University of California – Irvine (2008 winner)
  

Scholars on democracy, elections and mathematics