Making Organizational Endorsements for a Ranked Choice Voting Election

Some considerations

• Organizations may wish to endorse only one candidate, or you may wish to endorse a slate consisting of a 1st choice, a 2nd choice and a 3rd choice.
• Organizations may wish to use ranked choice voting to endorse your slate of candidates.
•  If you use ranked choice voting for endorsements, one of the ìcandidatesî can be ìno other candidateî (NOC) so that your members can decide to limit the number of rankings.
• An organizationís 1st choice ranking is the most important. You can always use your current endorsement process to make the 1st choice, and then conduct another process to extend your endorsement to 2nd and 3rd choices.

Using ranked choice voting (RCV) to make organizational endorsements:

RCV method to endorse only one candidate

Voters rank their candidates, 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice and so on. They should pick a different candidate for each ranking, and the number of rankings allowed can be unlimited.

First determine how many ballots you have, and then what a winning majority is. A majority is defined as greater than 50% of the vote. So if you have 100 ballots, a majority is 51, if you have 75 ballots, a majority is 38 votes.

Second, count all the number 1 rankings. Sort the ballots into piles, one pile for each candidate. Does any candidate have a majority of first rankings? If so, that candidate is endorsed. If not, the ìinstant runoffî begins.

Third, the candidate with the least number of first rankings is eliminated, and all ballots that ranked that candidate first go to each ballotís runoff choice ñ the number two ranking on each ballot. Move each ballot to the pile of the continuing candidate that is ranked second on these ballots. If any ballots do not have a second ranking, that ballot no longer is in play and goes into the ìexhaustedî pile.

Fourth, does any candidate now have a majority of continuing ballots still in play (those not in the exhausted pile)?  If so, that candidate is endorsed. If not, repeat Step Three above, and continue to do that until one candidate reaches the majority threshold.

RCV method to endorse a slate of three candidates

This approach allows you to come up with 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice endorsements on a single ballot. One of the candidates in the running can be No Other Candidate (NOC) in case some in your organization wish to limit the number of endorsements. This method is very similar to Method One above, except that you use the same ballots and count them three different times, once for each ranking.  HOWEVER, you drop the candidate who won the previous endorsement from consideration when recounting the ballots.

Just like Method One above, voters rank their candidates, 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice and so on. They should pick a different candidate for each ranking, and the number of rankings allowed can be unlimited.

First determine how many ballots you have, and then what a winning majority is. A majority is defined as greater than 50% of the vote. So if you have 100 ballots, a majority is 51, if you have 75 ballots, a majority is 38 votes.

Second, count all the number 1 rankings. Sort the ballots into piles, one pile for each candidate. Does any candidate have a majority of first rankings? If so, that candidate is endorsed. If not, the ìinstant runoffî begins.

Third, the candidate with the least number of first rankings is eliminated, and all ballots that ranked that candidate first go to each ballotís runoff choice ñ the number two ranking on each ballot. Move each ballot to the pile of the continuing candidate that is ranked second on these ballots. If any ballots do not have a second ranking, that ballot no longer is in play and goes into the ìexhaustedî pile.

Fourth, does any candidate now have a majority of continuing ballots still in play (those not in the exhausted pile)?  If so, that candidate is endorsed. If not, repeat Step Three above, and continue to do that until one candidate reaches the majority threshold.

Fifth, now you have a first-endorsed candidate.  To figure out your organizationís second-endorsed candidate, recount all the ballots using Steps 1-4 above. However, DROP the name of the first-endorsed candidate from the counting. For all ballots that ranked this candidate, skip over that ranking to the ballotís next ranking. Count the ballots until you reach the second-endorsed candidate for your organization. If No Other Candidate (NOC) is selected as your second-endorsed candidate, then your organization makes no further endorsements.

Sixth, repeat Step 5 for your third-endorsed candidate.