Gainesville city commissioners on Monday expressed interest in investigating a new form of voting in city elections.

The commission unanimously approved plans to look into and start a community dialogue on "instant runoff voting," a proposal that would allow the city to consolidate its general and runoff elections into a single voting day.

The process was recommended by a committee reviewing the city's charter to examine ways to improve its electoral system.

In instant runoff voting, voters numerically rank as many candidates as they choose on a ballot, said Penny Wheat, the committee's chairwoman and a former Alachua County Commissioner. If no one receives a majority of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the lowest vote total is eliminated. The second-choice votes of those who cast ballots for the eliminated candidate then are distributed to the others in the field, Wheat said.

The process is repeated until a candidate earns a majority of the votes.

Florida has not yet certified instant runoff voting, but the city approved a measure that would put this certification on Gainesville's state legislative agendas.

The City Commission also directed its staff to work on ways to cut the amount of time between an election and the swearing-in of new commissioners.