Ranked Choice Voting & What's on the Ballot?

Ranked Choice Voting

What is ranked choice voting?

Takoma Park elections use ranked choice voting. You can rank candidates in order of preference: first choice, second choice, and so on. Ranking additional candidates will not affect your first choice. Your other choices are only considered if your first choice is eliminated. How votes are counted in ranked choice voting:

• All first-choice votes are counted. If a candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, they win.
• If not, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots for that candidate are counted for their next choice.
• If there is still no candidate with a majority, the process repeats until a candidate has more than 50% of the remaining votes and is declared the winner.

Mark Your Ballot

A properly completed ballot ranks candidates while marking only one choice per column.

Voters may indicate as many, or as few choices as they wish.

A ballot may be invalid should the voter ‘s intentions be unclear to the judges counting the ballots, such as if the voter marks multiple candidates as their first choice. In this case no vote is cast for a first or second choice.

A ballot may, however, be partially valid. In this case the voter ‘s first choice is clear. However, no valid choices are indicated if JOHN SMITH is eliminated.

What’s on the November 8, 2022 Ballot?

√ Vote for mayor

√ Vote for a city councilmember to represent your ward

Quick Links:

• Voter Registration Information
• Vote by Mail – Every active voter should be receiving a ballot in the mail.
• Absentee Ballot
• Ranked Choice Voting & What’s on the Ballot?
• Ways to return your Ballot
• 2022 Election Calendar (PDF) (rev 9/29/2022)
• 2022 Nominating Caucus – Tuesday, 7:30 pm , Sept. 13
• 2022 Mayor and Council Candidates
•  Information for Candidates
  • View the video and PowerPoint presentation from the workshop (PDF) of the Information Session.