Supervisor Fiona Ma: Exercise Your Rights - Vote!

This November, San Francisco residents will have the opportunity to vote for candidates for local offices as well as local Propositions A through I and several state initiatives.

This will be the second time voters will be using ranked-choice voting to elect candidates to office. Ranked-choice voting (RCV), also called instant run-off voting, allows San Francisco voters to elect local officials by selecting first, second and third choice candidates on their ballots. RCV allows for a majority vote without the need for a separate run-off election.

A recent hearing I held at the SF Board of Supervisors addressed concerns regarding outreach and education about this new process to our minority communities. Despite the best efforts of our SF Department of Elections and many non-profit groups citywide, budget constraints have made it challenging to reach and educate all city voters.

While the RCV ballot is similar to previous ballots, there are significant differences. It is important for all voters to understand this new process in order to ensure that their votes are counted properly and that the process runs efficiently.

Here is a quick review on how ranked-choice voting works. On the ballot, voters will have the option to rank candidates for each local office either first, second or third. The Department of Elections then takes the ballots and starts the RCV process by counting first-choice votes only. Any candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes wins the election. However, if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, a process of removing candidates and redistributing their votes begins. The candidate who received the fewest number of first-choice votes is removed from the election. Votes for the removed candidate are then redistributed among the remaining candidates and all the votes are recounted. This process is repeated until one candidate has a winning majority.

Things to keep in mind when you vote are that while you have the option to indicate different candidates for your first, second and third choices, you also have the option to only vote for a first-choice candidate. However, if that candidate is eliminated, your vote cannot be transferred to a second or third choice because you have not indicated a second or third choice on your ballot.

Also, if you vote for the same candidate for all three choices and that candidate is removed, your vote cannot be transferred to a second or third choice. Write-in candidates can also be ranked.

Local officials that are elected by ranked-choice voting include the mayor, members of the Board of Supervisors, sheriff, district attorney, city attorney, treasurer, assessor-recorder and public defender. Ranked-choice voting does not apply to elections for school board, college board or to candidates for state or federal offices.

As we saw in the previous election, final election results may take some time to tally. The Department of Elections must process all ballots - ballots cast at polling places, absentee ballots and provisional ballots - before determining whether any candidate received a majority of the first-choice votes and then whether the process of eliminating candidates and transferring votes will be necessary.

There is no hard and fast date for the final election results, but they intend to report final election results no later than 28 days after election day. For more information about ranked-choice voting or the upcoming election, contact the Department of Elections at 554-4375. The last day to register to vote for the Nov. 8 election is Monday, Oct. 24. You can request a voter registration card online through the Department of Election's Web site at www.sfgov.org/election or by calling (415) 554-4411.

Fiona Ma is a San Francisco supervisor representing District 4.