In this episode of RCV Clips, hosts Kelly G and Chris Hughes discuss the upcoming ranked choice voting (RCV) elections in Charlottesville, Virginia, and New York City. They explore the implementation of RCV in Charlottesville, including its proportional voting system, and reflect on New York City's experience with RCV since its adoption. The conversation also touches on the competitive nature of the upcoming mayoral election in NYC and the technology used in RCV elections, such as RCTab. The episode concludes with a look ahead at future RCV elections across various jurisdictions.

Takeaways:

Charlottesville is implementing ranked choice voting for the first time.

Proportional ranked choice voting allows for more representative outcomes.

New York City adopted ranked choice voting to avoid costly runoffs.

RCV helps capture voter preferences in a single election.

Technology like RCTab is crucial for counting RCV votes efficiently.

Charlottesville's election is on June 17th with early voting already underway.

New York City elections are highly competitive, especially for mayor.

RCV is being used in multiple jurisdictions this fall.

Fort Collins, Colorado is a new implementation of RCV.

Cambridge, Massachusetts has a long history of using proportional RCV.

RCVRC's Senior Director of Programming & Outreach Tiffany Montemayor and RCTab Program Director Mat Ruberg joined the podcast this month to debrief Redondo Beach's first-ever RCV elections last month! Mat and Tiffany walk us through the whole experience, from getting RCTab certified in California through Redondo Beach's post-election manual tally of their RCV results.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Redondo Beach RCV Page
• CASOS acceptance letter for RCTab
• RCTab
• PRCV Handcount Toolkit (used to develop single-winner manual tally procedures for Redondo Beach) 
• RCV Maps

RCVRC's Director of Policy Ryan Kirby joins the podcast this month to launch our brand-new Proportional Ranked Choice Voting Hand Count Toolkit! He and Kelly lay out the basics of PRCV, how to use the toolkit, and discuss the development process.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Toolkit
• PRCV 101 video
• PRCV Fact Sheet
• Multnomah County video

Imani Brooks, Policy Fellow with Legal Defense Fund (LDF), joins the podcast this month to give us an overview on State Voting Rights Acts (SVRAs) across the country. She and Chris discuss what SVRAs do, how to build a strong SVRA, and what you can do to help pass one in your state.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• New York Attorney General's office SVRA landing page
• LDF SVRA landing page
• LDF + Center for American Progress explainer video
• Brennan Center state voting laws page
• AALDEF voting rights page 
• Latino Justice voting rights page
• Campaign Legal Center SVRAs page
• Harvard Election Law Clinic
• LDF SVRA Polling Key Findings Memo
• Democracy Diminished: State and Local Threats to Voting Post-Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder (Shelby County)
• What Project 2025 Means for Black Communities: Voting Rights and Black Political Power

Leah Benson, Ranked Choice Voting Project Manager for Multnomah County, Oregon joins the podcast this month! She and Chris take a deep dive into the November 2024 elections in Portland, which marked the city's first time using RCV, and discuss the ins and outs of RCV implementation.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Portland Election Outcomes Report
• Multnomah County RCV explainer video