Ranked-choice voting in San Francisco
Ranked-choice voting was passed by the voters of San Francisco as an amendment to the City’s Charter (Proposition A) in March 2002.

Ranked-choice voting allows San Francisco voters to elect local officials by selecting a first-choice candidate in the first column on the ballot, and different second- and third-choice candidates in the second and third columns on the ballot.

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How it works
To start, every first-choice vote is counted. Any candidate who receives a majority (more than 50%) of the first-choice votes is declared the winner.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the first-choice votes, a process of eliminating candidates and transferring votes begins.

First, the candidate who received the fewest number of first-choice votes is eliminated from the race.

Second, voters who selected the eliminated candidate as their first choice will have their vote transferred to their second choice.

Third, all the votes are recounted.

Once the votes are recounted, if any candidate has received more than 50% of the votes, he or she is declared the winner.

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the process of eliminating candidates and transferring votes is repeated until one candidate has a winning majority.

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