Ranked Choice Ballots

August 2004

As the infamous butterfly ballot from the Florida 2000 ballot taught us, ballot design is critical to the success of any election.  One benefit of the Florida election is increased attention to ballot design.  For example, a group of graphic design professional created a ballot design project.

With the implementation of instant runoff voting in San Francisco in November 2004, it's been necessary to design ranked choice ballots that are user friendly.  The Center for Voting and Democracy has developed ballot designs, field tested them and written up the results of our survey of voters on the San Francisco IRV ballot page.  You can also find more information about that election.

Ballots for IRV and other ranked-choice voting systems have been developed for different types of equipment and ballot styles.

The following are a few examples:

• The July 2004 sample ballot for San Francisco's November 2004 election, along with an initial version and a later version designed by the Center for Voting and Democracy and compared to the Department of Elections original ballot design in 2001

• A ballot from the 2001 Cambridge MA city council election, which uses choice voting (the single transferable vote form of proportional representation).  Also check out the school board ballot

• Five sample designs for Vermont voting equipment.

• Three generic sample ballots

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Copyright 2004     The Center for Voting and Democracy
6930 Carroll Ave. Suite 610, Takoma Park, MD 20912
(301) 270-4616        [email protected]