On the day that San Francisco used ranked-choice voting for the first time in a competitive mayor’s race, two supervisors called for repealing the voting system. “Massive numbers of San Franciscans continue to be confused about our voting process in the city,” Supervisor Mark Farrell said Tuesday. Farrell and Supervisor Sean Elsbernd hope to put a charter amendment before city voters in June to undo ranked-choice voting.
Under San Francisco’s system, voters can pick up to three candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-pick votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and the second-choice votes of those who voted for him or her are then allocated. This process continues until a candidate ends up with a majority of votes.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who won just 24 percent of the first-pick votes in her election last year, became mayor when the second and third picks were factored in to the final tally.Supervisor John Avalos, a candidate for mayor in Tuesday’s contest, said he was “stunned” that two colleagues would announce their proposal on election day, describing it as “a cheap publicity stunt.”
Full Article: 2 S.F. supervisors seek to end ranked voting.