20 million Americans live in cities and states where RCV is widely used. RCV has been adopted for state and federal elections in Alaska, and Maine uses RCV in statewide primary and federal elections, including for president. Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Springfield, IL use RCV for military and overseas voters.
More than two dozen cities in 17 states use Ranked Choice Voting for local elections. They range from large cities like New York and San Francisco to small cities like Vineyard, Utah and Eastpointe, Michigan. Five cities in Minnesota — St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka, and Bloomington — will use RCV for their mayoral and council races in 2021.
Democratic and Republican parties routinely use RCV in leadership elections and nominating contests, but 2020 saw both parties make great strides with RCV. Five states ranked their vote in presidential primaries or caucuses in 2020, and the Indiana Republican party and the Utah Democratic and Republican parties used RCV for their virtual conventions. The Minnesota DFL also used RCV for endorsements at its virtual state convention.
RCV is used in democracies around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Malta, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and in the city of London, England. Elected officials in India, Nepal and Pakistan use the multi-winner form of RCV to select their national senates and in India, its president.