Ranked Choice Voting presents a unique and compelling way to inject kindness, empathy and collaboration into American Politics. Everything about this method of voting encourages the candidates and the voters to find points of agreement. The systemic negativity, cynicism and polarization can be effectively removed from American Politics by reframing our voting around the question: "What do we have in Common?"
822sc
We asked people at Findlay Market in Cincinnati what they dislike about today's political environment, and if they have heard of Ranked Choice Voting. Watch their reactions and discover more about what we are working towards in Ohio.
What is ranked choice voting? What can you do to make voting in Ohio better in the future? One simple electoral reform could bring Ohioans more choice, more voice, and more freedom for voters at the polls.
What do Ranked Choice Voting and road trips have in common? Find out in this video from Rank The Vote Ohio. Find out more at http://RankTheVoteOhio.org.
Rank the Vote Ohio had a House Party to give a small group of Ohioans an experience of Ranked Choice Voting. See their reactions as they vote for ice cream toppings.
Our political system today is tearing us apart and preventing us from working together to find solutions to major challenges. The system lets big money and corrupt special interests have too much control over our government. Conventional voting allows politicians to win with less than a majority of support and shuts out independent voices and limits our choices by forcing voters to choose what sometimes feels like the “lesser of two evils.”
Ranked Choice Voting is a simple, fair, and easy way to help fix these problems by giving you more voice and empowering you to vote your values without feeling like you're wasting your vote.
With Ranked Choice Voting, you can choose one candidate or rank the candidates in the order you prefer them. If no candidate wins a majority and your favorite is in last place, your vote automatically counts for your second choice, and so forth. It's just like a runoff, but instead of having to return to the polls, your vote transfers instantly since you already ranked your preferences.
This simple change will ensure that the winner has support from a majority of voters while leveling the field so that a greater diversity of parties and candidates can compete. Ranked Choice Voting will put voters first and restore faith that their votes matter at this critical time by providing the freedom to vote for your true favorite without helping the candidate you like least. Election integrity is stronger when more voters have confidence their votes will count.
by requiring a candidate to win more than 50% by appealing to a broad base of voters. In our current “plurality-wins” system, candidates can win despite being the last choice of most voters; if more than two candidates run, winner only needs a minority of votes like 34% even if 66% vote for other candidates. Ranked Choice Voting guarantees the election of majority winners, whose support extends beyond a narrow base, by requiring the winner to have more than 50% of the vote. This is done in a series of “instant runoffs” until one candidate reaches a majority. For more detail, see “How Does RCV Work?”
by allowing you to vote for the candidate you really want, without settling for the “lesser of two evils.” In our current system, if your favorite candidate is unlikely to win, you have two bad choices: (1) cast a “safe” vote for one of the front-runners, to avoid electing the one you like least, or (2) cast a principled but risky vote for your favorite candidate. You shouldn’t be forced to take sides in this lose-lose dilemma. Ranked Choice Voting lets you vote for candidates you truly support, not just against the ones you oppose. Vote your hopes, not your fears!
by encouraging more candidates to run without fear of vote-splitting. In our current system, many candidates are pressured to drop out, shamed as “spoilers,” and excluded from public debates. Ranked Choice Voting welcomes all candidates into the race — and you can’t win if you don’t run. For example, studies of of cities with Ranked Choice Voting found women and people of color are running and winning office more often than they are in cities without RCV.
by rewarding candidates who reach beyond their base to find common ground with more voters. Voters are tired of toxic campaign rhetoric and mud-slinging. With Ranked Choice Voting, candidates do best when they reach out positively to as many voters as possible, including those supporting their opponents. While candidates must still differentiate themselves to earn 1st-choice support, a campaign that emphasizes negative attacks over positive ideas may lose crucial 2nd and 3rd choice support. Comprehensive polling that compared cities with RCV to those without found that voters in RCV cities experienced campaign messages that were more positive and constructive.
by tempering intra-party tensions during contested primaries and choosing nominees with a mandate from party voters. By allowing voters to rank primary candidates in order of preference, Ranked Choice Voting helps consolidate rather than divide competing party factions. The incentive to positively campaign under RCV means fewer rifts between party members after a hotly contested primary, and the requirement that winners demonstrate a majority of support under RCV will give nominees the mandate they need to rally party members behind them. RCV helps every party put their best foot forward heading into the general election.
Ranked Choice Voting allows voters the option to rank candidates on the ballot in order of preference: first, second, third, and so on. You can vote for just one candidate like you always have, or you can rank additional choices — as many or few as you decide to rank.
If your favorite candidate doesn’t win, your vote is instantly counted for your second choice, so candidates must compete for every vote. If one candidate receives a majority (more than 50%) of the first-choice votes, that candidate is elected. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes is dropped, and those votes count instantly towards the next choice on each voter’s ballot. This process repeats in rounds (a runoff) until one candidate has a majority. For more detail, watch this short video to see RCV in action!
Many cities around the US have used RCV for their local elections for decades. Maine became the first state to use RCV for state and federal contests in 2018, followed by Alaska in 2022. Ranked Choice Voting is used in some form in more than 50 jurisdictions. See the “Where RCV is Used” page from FairVote for more. Ohio needs to catch up!
Help bring Ranked Choice Voting to Ohio by signing up to volunteer, donating, or spreading the word!
Are you interested in Hosting a Zoom Party for Rank the Vote Ohio?
A short and simple Zoom party can be a lot of fun for you and incredibly educational for your friends. It can also help Rank the Vote Ohio reach even more people. We can work together to plan a theme that fits you and your friends!
Halloween: Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, or Ghosts?
Harry Potter: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin?
Cocktails: Vodka, Rum, Tequilla, or Whiskey?
Zoom parties will last for approximately one hour. Your group can stay on the call past the hour, though, to continue the party amongst yourselves if you choose!
Please sign up here, and someone from our team will follow up with you.
Thank you so much for volunteering to help spread the word about Rank the Vote Ohio!
Sign up
Privacy Policy
Our Commitment To Privacy
Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.
Donor Privacy
Donor privacy is important to us. Rank the Vote Ohio will not trade, share, or sell a donor's personal information with anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations. We may occasionally have third party vendors perform services on our behalf to improve our ability to pursue our mission. These third parties have access to your personal information only as needed to perform their services for Rank the Vote Ohio and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of the personal information. We may agree to allow a third party vendor to take aggregated and anonymized data about activity on the Rank the Vote Ohio site and donations to Rank the Vote Ohio, and use that data for other purposes such as improvement of the vendor’s products or benchmarking for the vendor’s other clients. In each instance, the third party vendor will be contractually obligated to ensure the data won’t be recombined with other information to create any record about you as an identifiable individual.
(By providing your phone number you consent to receiving texts from Rank The Vote Ohio with the ability to opt out. Message and data rates may apply. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties. Additionally, we will not share your opt-in to an SMS campaign with any third party for purposes unrelated to providing you with the services of that campaign. We may share your Personal Data, including your SMS opt-in or consent status, with third parties that help us provide our messaging services, including but not limited to platform providers, phone companies, and any other vendors who assist us in the delivery of text messages.)
The Information We Collect
Our web server automatically records the domain name, network location and Internet Protocol (IP) address of each visitor to our site. This information is not personally identifiable. We collect and analyze this information to help us improve the site and better serve our visitors. We use this information to determine which pages you visit, how long you stay, and the site you visited immediately beforehand.
We do not employ cookies. A cookie is a small text file that a Web server places on a user’s computer hard drive to be a unique identifier.
Users who provide information will not receive any unwarranted contact from Rank the Vote Ohio. The information we collect will not be used to create customer profiles based on browsing or purchasing history.
We offer links to other websites. When you click on links to other websites, we encourage you to read their privacy policies, as their standards may differ from ours.
Web Form Policy
RanktheVoteOhio.org allows you to fill out and submit a variety of documents through web forms. When you use Rank the Vote Ohio's Web forms, we store a record of your entry to analyze and determine usage statistics.
Our Commitment To Children's Privacy
Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. For that reason, we never collect or maintain information at our website from those we actually know are under 13, and no part of our website is structured to attract anyone under 13.
Acceptance of Privacy Policy
By using this site and services, you indicate your acceptance of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any of the terms described in this Privacy Policy, you should discontinue use of this site and services.
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we change our policy, we will post those changes on our site.
How To Contact Us
Should you have other questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at [email protected]
Welcome to Rank The Vote Ohio! We are a grassroots organization, and Volunteers are the basis of everything we do. There is a place for everyone in our mission to build our foundation and grow our movement!
We are currently looking to fill positions that range from Team Lead to small tasks, in-person and virtually, locally or state-wide. Whatever your time commitment or skills, as long as you have a desire to improve our democratic systems in Ohio, we can find ways for you to help!
We will connect with you soon and help you find the best fit! Please make sure not to uncheck the subscription boxes as we have a harder time connecting. If you would like to be proactive, please RSVP to an upcoming Volunteer Orientation session!
We look forward to meeting you and welcoming you to our team!
(By providing your phone number you consent to receiving texts from Rank The Vote Ohio with the ability to opt out. Message and data rates may apply. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties. Additionally, we will not share your opt-in to an SMS campaign with any third party for purposes unrelated to providing you with the services of that campaign. We may share your Personal Data, including your SMS opt-in or consent status, with third parties that help us provide our messaging services, including but not limited to platform providers, phone companies, and any other vendors who assist us in the delivery of text messages. We may, from time to time, send a text to solicit donations or marketing.)
Become a volunteer